


Eggs

by SamanthaNovak



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Blood, Blowjobs, Bottom Dean, Canon-Typical Violence, Come play, Discussions of death, Domestic Fluff, Egg Laying, Eggpreg, Eggs, Emotional Dean Winchester, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, M/M, Oviposition, POV Castiel, POV Dean, POV Dean Winchester, POV Multiple, Pregnant Dean Winchester, Protective Castiel, Top Castiel, Torture, explanations of violence in end notes, handjobs, minor attempt to harm an unborn baby, no one actually dies, really it's just a cut to Dean's belly, torture to a pregnant person
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-05-25 07:48:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 35,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14972465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamanthaNovak/pseuds/SamanthaNovak
Summary: For the following prompt from the LJ Kink Communty:"Many fics skim over the part where Dean has a belly full of eggs. I want to see that explored. The eggs inside Dean have to incubate for months before he can lay them. Meanwhile Dean has to figure out how to continue with his regular life while pregnant with an increasingly large and heavy belly of eggs. He also has to build a nest for when he lays the eggs.Bonus if Cas is the father and is part of Dean and the eggs' life. Doesn't matter what species the eggs are from, but bonus if it is something unusual. Bonus if Dean gains a few features from that species, temporary or permanent. No wincest."





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Yet another fill I started anonymously and am claiming now. It just got so long and each part is so long that LJ's 4300 character limit in comments became super frustrating. Plus, I came up with an awesome collage for a banner. And the prompter loved what I had so far so I didn't feel as anxious.
> 
>  _Yes,_ I wrote Destiel. _Yes,_ I usually say I only write Sastiel or J2 or Cas  & Dean friendship. I saw this prompt and couldn't resist the eggpreg part and I read enough Destiel because it's 90+% of the fandom and I love reading so I'm not gonna turn away a good plot, and I kinda grew a soft spot for it... And I did like Dean beforehand anyway, so... Sue me. I'm branching out a bit. _**Cowers in the corner**_

* * *

 

“ _Cas,” Dean moaned, arching his back and shoving his ass back onto the angel’s cock. “Gonna come…”  
_

_“Not yet,” Cas panted, gripping Dean’s hips tighter and holding the hunter in place. “Need… to lay first.”  
_

_Dean groaned in frustration and dropped onto his forearms, keeping his ass up for Castiel to pound into. “Then_ do it,” _he snarled without any real heat, followed by a whimper of pleasure as his cock twitched with impending orgasm. He gripped the base in a fist tightly to hold off.  
_

_It only took Castiel a few more thrusts before he came into Dean’s ass, groaning deeply as his cock pulsed. Except the angel didn’t release just semen like a human male. Amid the wash of fluids filling Dean’s ass were eggs – eggs containing the angel’s true celestial DNA. They were about the size of a marble as they slipped from his cock into Dean’s ass, making both men grunt and groan at the bumpy sensation.  
_

_“Now?” Dean panted, desperate for release.  
_

_Castiel pulled out once he’d deposited his load and draped himself over Dean’s back. One hand braced the hunter’s abdomen while the other cupped at the end of Dean’s cock. “Now,” he commanded.  
_

_Dean whimpered as he furiously stroked himself, chasing desperately the release he’d been denied. When he finally came, Cas’s name on his lips, the angel collected as much of the hunter’s release as he could. When Dean finally stopped spurting, Castiel sat up and used his free hand to scoop up Dean’s come in dollops, carefully working it into the hunter’s ass until all of it was gone.  
_

_“We do it?” Dean asked, keeping his ass upright until Castiel gave him the okay to lie down.  
_

_“We did,” Castiel confirmed. “With my grace encased in the eggs and your semen providing the other parental DNA, we shall have children, Dean,” he said, a wistful note lacing his voice at the end.  
_

_Dean hummed his agreement, unable to stop a small smile of his own. “How many do you think you put in there? I was too busy needing to come to pay attention.”  
_

_“Three or four,” Castiel said. “At least.”  
_

_“Holy shit!” Dean exclaimed, pushing up onto all fours and attempting to get up before Castiel gently pushed him back down with a reminder that they needed his ass up to let the eggs catch. “Four?! I can’t push out four kids, Cas!”  
_

_“You won’t be giving birth to actual children, Dean,” Castiel explained. “You will incubate our eggs for several months and then, when they are fully matured, you will lay the eggs.”  
_

_“Still, that’s_ four _kids-”  
_

_“Fledglings.”  
_

_“-for us to raise, Cas!” Dean stressed, ignoring the angel’s correction.”I know I said I’d like a big family but I didn’t mean all at once.”  
_

_“Do you regret this decision?” Castiel asked even though it was far too late to back out now.  
_

_Dean was silent for several seconds then shook his head, reaching back with one hand to clasp at one of Castiel’s. “No, Cas, I don’t. I want kids with you, a family, no matter how many we have.”  
_

_Castiel smiled affectionately and ran his hand down the length of Dean’s spine, watching his mate’s relaxed features until he deemed enough time had passed for the eggs to catch.  
_

_They would know in time if Dean caught and was now pregnant._


	2. Chapter 1

Turns out being pregnant with angelic eggs was a lot like being pregnant with a human baby. Though gestation (or in this case, “incubation”) was slightly longer. Cas had explained that this was because their offspring needed a vessel to contain them just as Castiel did and were developing their own bodies in addition to their angelic grace, using DNA from both Dean’s and Castiel’s semen.  
  
“But you’re an  _angel,”_  Dean had pointed out. “Your DNA is the grace, isn’t it? The jizz you shot up my ass will have Jimmy’s DNA.”  
  
“This is my body now,” Cas said, self-consciously adjusting his coat. “Jimmy has been gone since Lucifer tore us apart in that cemetery. Yes, the DNA in what I ejaculated into you that will help determine what our offsprings’ vessels will look like will mean they will look like you and Jimmy Novak. But everything that is  _me_  is in the grace within the eggs. They are just as much a part of  _me_  as they are you, Dean.”  
  
Dean decided not to question the eggs’ parentage again.  
  
And, keeping with the theme of “a lot like a human pregnancy,” the first thing to start happening because of the eggs was morning sickness.  
  
“Son of a bitch,” Dean groaned between retching into the toilet somewhere into the latter weeks of the first month. “I'm not even technically  _pregnant,_  am I?"  
  
"Not in the traditional sense," Cas agreed where he knelt beside Dean, reaching out to rub soothing circles into the hunter’s back. "But your body still recognizes the eggs within you as foreign intrusions and is trying to get used to them, as it were."  
  
Dean remained quiet for a moment, thoughtful, a hand moving down to splay over his abdomen. "What if my body decides it doesn't like them?" he finally asked, barely more than a whisper, before meeting his angel's eyes. "Cas... is it possible that I could lose our kids?"  
  
Cas's eyes flicked away from Dean's for a moment, clearly not wanting to think about an outcome like that, before he nodded. "Yes. It is a possibility as with any pregnancy," he said, meeting Dean's eyes again. "But that possibility is no greater than the possibility that you carry to term. Don't dwell on what may happen just because you don’t want it to."  
  
Dean nodded slowly in understanding then grimaced as he caught sight of the contents of the toilet bowl. Nearly gagging again out of disgust, he reached up to flush his breakfast away then slumped against the nearby wall, scrubbing a hand over his face.  
  
"Hey. Cas?" he said after a moment. "What do the kids-"  
  
"Fledglings."  
  
“Whatever,” Dean sighed. “What do they  _look like?_  Inside the eggs, I mean. You said it takes so long because they’re developing bodies, too. Are the eggs going to… to have…” He held his hands up approximately the width apart of a newborn. “You know.”  
  
Cas tilted his head and squinted at the space between Dean’s hands, clearly confused by the question. “Do the eggs contain infants? Yes,” he said when Dean nodded. “As I said, they need their own vessels just as I do. But theirs will be completely their own.”  
  
“So when I lay them… and they hatch-?”

“A full term infant will be inside,” Cas concluded. “When you’ve laid them, I will use my grace to begin breaking the shell to free them.”  
  
Dean pressed a hand to his mouth as his stomach threatened to rebel again. He wasn’t quite sure how he felt about the idea of pulling an infant from an  _egg._  Then again, the only reason this bothered him was probably because it was  _different_  than what he’d known pregnancy to be for humans. And while Castiel  _looked_  human, he wasn’t. And neither were their children. So just because this process was something new, it wasn’t necessarily  _wrong._  
  
“Okay,” he said on a sigh, dropping his palm to his denim clad thigh with a slap. “I can do this. Will, uh… Will being in the eggs outside of my body hurt them? I mean, they’re not gonna suffocate in their, are they?”  
  
“They will not begin breathing on their own until they’ve been extracted from the eggs,” Cas explained. “However, once they are outside of your body, it is unwise to leave them in their eggs for too long. Without your body, the egg will begin to decay and the infant inside will die along with it.”  
  
Dean swallowed around a wave of nausea that had nothing to do with morning sickness. “Okay, so, get them out asap; got it.”  
  
“We can do this,” Cas assured, gripping Dean’s arms to help the hunter rise as he started to push himself up, rising with him. “I know it will be hard, but you are one of the strongest humans I know, Dean.”  
  
Dean made a vague grumbling sound that probably could have been a “thank you.” Then, seeing the slightly crestfallen expression on his angel's face, he said, "Cas… I know I suck at  _moments_  but... thanks. I know I'll probably resist you on things and snap at you along the way but just know... I do appreciate everything you do and will try to do for me," he said quietly then stepped closer to his angel and placed a chaste kiss to Castiel's jaw, unwilling to kiss his angel properly until he’d brushed his teeth. “And… I love you.”  
  
“I love you, too,” Cas said, unable to resist a small smile.  
  
"Hm. Now let me brush my teeth."  
  
~~~  
  
“Can you tell how many are in there?” Dean asked late one night as the two lie side-by-side in Dean’s bed facing one another. “’Cause we’re probably going to need to name them, right? We should probably know how many names we should think of.”  
  
Cas nodded. “I could if I actively tried looking. Lying like this, I can only vaguely sense their energies within you but it is too muddled together to discern between each offspring.”  
  
“Can you look?” Dean asked, rolling onto his back to expose his abdomen more.  
  
Cas nodded again and shifted up onto one elbow, reaching his other hand over to press against the still flat plane of Dean’s abdomen and closed his eyes as he focused. “I don’t know for sure how many I deposited into you but I can sense three distinct grace-soul signatures,” he said as he retracted his hand and lied down beside Dean again.  
  
“Three, huh?” Dean said thoughtfully. “We can do three, right? I mean, it’s not as common as singles or twins, maybe, but we can handle that, you, me, and Sam?”  
  
Castiel nodded, smiling reassuringly and reaching over to clasp one of Dean’s hands in a strong grip. “We can. It will likely be challenging but so I’m given to understand that’s a prominent aspect of parenthood in general.”  
  
Dean huffed an amused laugh and squeezed Castiel’s hand. wiggling slightly closer to the angel with a sleepy sigh.  
  
“Hey, Cas?” he said after a few more moments of silence.  
  
“Yes, Dean?”  
  
“We should give them a nursery. Maybe redo your old room since it’s between ours and Sammy’s,” Dean suggested.  
  
“That is a nice idea,” Cas agreed.  
  
Dean hummed faintly, slowly losing the battle with sleep. As he drifted off, one hand found its way to rest atop his abdomen.


	3. Chapter 2

“We really need to tell Sam,” Dean choked out between a gag and another round of retching. When it passed, he swallowed reflexively and closed his eyes as he took deep breaths through his mouth. “He’s only gonna tolerate ‘I’m fine’ for long before he starts to worry and then he’ll start being a pain in the ass until we tell him.”

“We could tell him now,” Castiel offered, slipping a hand under Dean’s t-shirt to rub gentle circles over his abdomen. “I don’t see any reason to wait. Besides, you are carrying three eggs; that won’t be easy to hide for long.” Already, he could feel a slight swelling to Dean’s middle where the usually was none.

Finally deciding his body was done trying to turn his empty stomach inside out, Dean flushed the toilet then slumped against Castiel’s chest, letting his angel continue rubbing his stomach. “Yeah, I guess,” he mumbled.

When Dean felt ready to move, Castiel helped him up and the hunter quickly brushed his teeth. Then they exited their bathroom and slowly made their way back through the bunker toward the kitchen. Before entering, Dean gently nudged Castiel in first.

“Make sure that shit’s gone,” he grumbled.

Castiel nodded and went into the kitchen to speak to Sam first. After only a minute, he returned and told Dean he was safe to enter.

“Are you okay?” Sam asked as Dean entered the kitchen, the younger hunter’s brow knitted in worried confusion. “You usually can’t even  _function_  without coffee yet all I did was set your mug in front of you and you bolted. And then Cas tells me to get rid of it all? What’s up with you lately, man? You’re  _still_ sick.”

“Smell made me sick,” Dean sighed, scrubbing a hand down his face.

“Okay?” Sam said, drawing the word out in a prompt for Dean to continue.

“Look, Sammy, Cas and I gotta tell you something,” Dean said. “It’s kinda big so just… don’t freak out. Okay?”

Sam nodded, seeing the underlying nervous edge to Dean’s demeanor. Much as his big brother tried to act casual about this, Sam could see that his reaction was important to Dean. “Yeah, course, Dean.”

Dean took a big breath and slowly let it out then resolutely met his brother’s eyes. “I’m pregnant.”

Sam frowned deeply in clear confusion, “Huh? Dude, that’s not possible.”

“It is,” Castiel interjected. “When one parent is an angel.”

“Cas’s grace makes a lot of this possible,” Dean added.

“Okay, wait, wait,” Sam said, holding his hands up, palms outward. “Back the fuck up a second, okay? You’re  _not_  kidding?”

Dean shook his head. “No, I swear this is real.”

Sam nodded, understanding that part. “And  _you’re_  the father? Or,  _other_  father?” he asked, turning to Castiel.

The angel nodded. “I am.”

“Who else would it be?” Dean snorted.

“I’m just trying to wrap my head around this!” Sam said defensively. “Let me process this one piece at a time. So, you two,” he said, gesturing with a pointed finger between the two, “are having a baby. Which is only possible, even though Dean is a  _man,_  because Cas is an  _angel._  That about sum it up?”

Dean nodded. “Yeah, but you got one thing a little wrong.”

Sam’s confused frown deepened as he eyed his brother. “What?”

“We’re not having  _a_  baby. There’s three of ‘em in there,” Dean said, one hand splaying across the small swell of his abdomen.

_”Triplets?!_  Sam exclaimed, eyes widening in shock.

Dean nodded. “Yeah. Triplets.”

Sam stared at his brother then his eyes slowly slid down to where Dean’s hand covered his middle. “Three…” he said in a breathless whisper. “Three babies?”

“Eggs.”

Sam blinked back into focus and turned confused eyes toward the angel who had remained mostly silent through the big reveal. “What’d you say?"

 

“Eggs,” Castiel repeated. “An angel impregnates their mates with eggs that will be laid and then hatch. While the fledglings inside will have human vessels as I do, they are developing inside eggs.”

“We wanted to tell you this now because I knew you’d freak out the longer I kept getting sick without any answers and because with three eggs in there, I won’t stay small as long,” Dean explained.

“I get that,” Sam agreed, eyes lowering back down to Dean’s middle. “How far along are you anyway? It doesn’t really look like anything.”

“Just over two months?” Dean said, posing it more like a question as he tried to think back and do math in his head. “It doesn’t look like much but I can feel a difference to my body when I touch it. Like I said, I won’t stay small long with three of them in there.”

“Can I…?” Sam asked, lifting a hand up toward Dean’s middle.

Dean rolled his eyes but pushed his hands into the small of his back and pushed his hips out a little bit, offering his abdomen for Sam to touch. “Knock yourself out.”

Sam carefully placed his palm over Dean’s middle, gasping faintly when he realized it wasn’t as soft as it should be but didn’t have the same kind of firmness as muscle did. He gave an experimental push with his fingertips, the flesh giving slightly but not as soft as flab. Flattening his palm again, he smoothed it back and forth across the small swell.

“Holy shit,” he breathed, slowly retracting his hand. “This is real.”

“As much as I love teasing my pain in the ass little brother, we wouldn’t lie about something like this,” Dean said as he relaxed his posture again. “Are you okay with this? I mean, this isn’t affecting just Cas and me. Three babies is a lot and we’re a family. Shit’s gonna change for all of us.”

“Yeah, no, I get it,” Sam assured. “It’s a big change and I think I’m still processing even though I just had my hands on it and everything, y’know? But I’m not… I’m not  _mad_  or… strangely enough, weirded out by this.”

Dean snorted in amusement, a grin spreading across his face. “Yeah, we see enough weird that a man being pregnant with angel eggs doesn’t phase us.”

Sam grinned, huffing a laugh. “We’re so fucked up.” Then his smile fell and his expression turned thoughtful as he turned to Castiel. “Wait, you said angels impregnate their mates with  _eggs,_  plural. Did you know Dean could wind up pregnant with a large number of babies?”

Castiel tilted his head thoughtfully, speaking slowly as he chose his words carefully. “I… wasn’t sure if Dean would be responsive to implantation. I’ve never heard of an angel laying their eggs in a male human. As he said, my grace is aiding him greatly.”

“How?” Sam asked, interrupting the answer to his first question with another.

“Just like two humans combining DNA to create new life, my grace is required to create life in this circumstance, combining with Dean’s… DNA. Dean and I having intercourse would accomplish nothing without my grace.

“Small portions of an angel’s grace break away from the whole in the form of small eggs, barely the size of a marble at first, and are implanted in the angel’s mate. In our case, my grace absorbed the genetic material in Dean’s semen to begin new life.

“I have no way of controlling how many eggs are implanted but it is usually a fairly large number. It is rare for an angel to sire only one fledgling. It is also rare for  _every_  egg to catch. So in answer to your question, yes, I knew Dean could become pregnant with more than one baby but I wasn’t worried it would be too great a number for him to handle,” Castiel explained.

Dean snorted. “I’ve never been pregnant before but I’m pretty sure  _three_  babies ain’t gonna be a piece of pie.”

Sam rolled his eyes at his brother’s own version of the common phrase but ignored him. “So what happens when the eggs are fully mature and ready to come out?”

“I lay them,” Dean said with a roll of his eyes as if the answer were obvious.

“That is an oversimplified version of the answer but, essentially, yes, he lays them,” Castiel affirmed. “As soon as they’re laid, I will help the fledglings out of their eggs.”

“What’s the  _not_  oversimplified version?” Sam asked.

 

“The eggs can’t just  _come out._  It would be too painful and likely cause damage if they…  _fell out,”_  Castiel said, trying to find the right way to explain. “I imagine it will be much like a human labor. Contractions of the abdomen will slowly and safely work the eggs down and Dean will push them out.”

“Huh,” Sam said thoughtfully, nodding in understanding. “Makes sense. As much as this whole process  _can_  make any sense…”

“So, we all on the same page?” Dean asked impatiently, tired of his body being the center of attention. Especially since Sam could nerd out and quiz Cas without him. “I’m pregnant with three angel egg babies, Cas put them there, and when they’re ready, I go into egg labor and lay them and then Cas gets them out of the eggs and then we’ll have triplets to raise. We good? Great. I’m hungry,” he mumbled, moving away from them to begin hunting through the fridge for something simple for breakfast that he’d, hopefully, keep down.

“Speaking of having triplets to raise,” Sam said and Dean inwardly groaned because Sam could be like a dog with a bone about things that piqued his interest and, of fucking course,  _this_  would be one of them. “You do get  _how much_  is going to change, right? This isn’t like getting a dog that you can leave at a kennel or something to go on a hunt. A baby – especially  _three_  – is a big deal. I mean, we’re gonna need a room for them,  _you_  at least can’t hunt while pregnant, and-” He broke off and turned back to Cas. “Does he have to watch what he eats? I mean, do the eggs take anything from him?”

“Technically, no,” Castiel said, a crease forming in his brow as he eyed Dean while the hunter moved to digging through the cupboard where they kept their cereals, doing his best to ignore the conversation. “Fledgling eggs do not connect to their host like a human fetus to its mother. Dean could, theoretically, eat whatever he wants without affecting the eggs. However, I would feel better if he refrained from certain things such as alcohol for the duration of the incubation.”

“What?!” Dean cried, finally rejoining the conversation, spinning around to pin his angel with wide eyes. “So, let me get this straight. I can eat whatever the hell I want because the eggs will develop just fine but you  _still_  don’t want me to?”

“Dean, it makes sense,” Sam added. “I mean, Cas even said he’s never heard of an angel laying their eggs in a man before. We don’t know everything that could happen. Yeah, maybe they don’t have cords like human babies that take nutrients from you but maybe what you eat will matter later. We just don’t know. It’s better to be safe than sorry, right?”

Dean glared at a spot on the floor, absently tracing a hand down his middle. Much as he hated it, Sam had a point. And he didn’t want to risk harming his babies. Less than three months in and he was already attached to them. He hadn’t even felt them – and he wasn’t even sure if that was possible if their bodies were contained in eggs – but he still cared about them already. Pregnant women avoided alcohol and some of them probably hated it, too. Why couldn’t he? It’s not like he drank  _a lot._  A beer at dinner or in the evenings hanging out with Sam and Cas were about it for him lately anyway.

“Yeah, okay,” he finally agreed, returning to his hunt for breakfast. “No alcohol.”

“Sam, we’d like to turn my old room into a nursery for them,” Castiel said. “I would prefer Dean not try to do a lot of moving. Could you help me clear out the old furniture?”

“Yeah! I’d love to help you guys put together a nursery!” Sam said excitedly, grinning so hard his dimples showed. “Just let me know when and what you need help with any time and I’ll do it.”

While Dean listened to them talk and plan out the clearing away of old furniture, he hid a small smile, his back still to the room, as he poured a bowl of Froot Loops. He knew it’d be a lot of work preparing for and raising triplets and he wasn’t looking forward to getting huge or the process of laying them but hearing how excited Sam and Cas were about this whole thing made his chest feel warm in a way he’d never admit to. His kids were already loved so much.


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn’t remember what, exactly, Cas’s room looked like and in my digging to get visuals to work with (btw, S12’s episode “The Future” has a nice pan across pretty much the whole room at one point; super useful!), I discovered that Sam & Dean’s rooms aren’t even close to one another! Dean’s apparently is room 11 and Sam’s is 21. Cas’s is 15 though that’s been used as a room for other people, Mary included. I always picture them in the same hall of the dormitory section of the bunker so that’s how I wrote it.
> 
> Also, I am totally aware all three of the boys (Castiel for sure) are _probably_ OOC. I can’t seem to keep them completely IC with fluffy stuff like this so… On the subject of being OOC, I’m not certain if Dean has any creative talent (we know singing is not one of them, lol) but I liked the idea that he could paint and has hidden it ‘cause who needs to paint outside of sigils and warding when hunting?

* * *

 

Dean stood in the doorway to Castiel’s old room, eyeing the mostly empty space. The bedding had been stored away in a closet where they kept other extra linens and the bed had been dismantled and put in a storage room. They’d also removed the chairs, tables, nightstands, the old telephone, and the desk lamp. That left the floor lamp which wouldn’t be enough to properly light the windowless room on its own.

The pregnant Winchester was currently trying to imagine fitting three cribs, at least one dresser, and a changing table into the small room.

A warm body pressed into his back and he leaned into it as arms wrapped around him, hands cupping the small swell of his belly. He hummed appreciatively as they gently massaged his skin through his t-shirt.

“What are you thinking?” Castiel murmured, mindful of his proximity to Dean’s ear.

Dean sighed in contentment as he settled into the embrace. “Trying to decide how the hell we’re going to fit _three_ cribs, a changing table, and storage for the _ton_ of clothes we’ll need to store, not to mention enough _diapers_ for _three_ babies and they’re part angel anyway so will they have to even _go_ ‘cause you don’t as far as I know but I don’t make it habit of checking on your bathroom needs and-”

“Dean,” Castiel said sharply, breaking his boyfriend from his panicked rant. “Breathe.”

Dean forced himself to take a deep breath then slowly let it out. “I’m freaking out, Cas,” he admitted quietly. “At the end of this, we’ll have _three_ babies that are our responsibility. Sam’s right; this isn’t like a dog or babysitting where we get to hand the kids back to the parents. We _are_ the parents, and… I don’t know if we can handle this.”

Castiel nuzzled Dean’s cheek in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. The tension bleeding away led him to believe he’d succeeded. “I know this is overwhelming, Dean. Truthfully, I am nervous as well. But I meant what I said when I told you that you are one of the strongest humans I know. You face any challenge thrown at you head-on and always come out the other side. And you have Sam and myself in this as well.”

Dean ducked his head, trying to hide the flush he felt heating his cheeks and the dopey grin he couldn’t keep from his lips. “Thanks, Cas,” he mumbled. Then he schooled his features and cleared his throat as he lifted his gaze back to the room. “So any ideas how we fit three cribs in here? And storage space?”

Castiel hummed thoughtfully as he eyed the room then stepped around Dean to move around the space. “What if we move the lamp out of this corner and put the cribs in a U shape on this side of the room where the bed used to be?” he suggested. “One along the wall opposite the brick and the other two perpendicular to that. We can put a dresser beside the crib here,” he said, gesturing to the wall across the door, “then put another here,” he gestured to the next wall, “then a changing table beside that and the lamp can be put beside the door, across from the crib and dresser,” he concluded, turning to Dean to gauge his opinion.

Dean remained silent for several minutes as he scanned the room, imagining it the way Cas described it. He slowly moved into the room and wandered in a circle as he imagined it then scrunched his nose. “It feels like it’ll be cramped,” he admitted. “But I guess trying to fit three babies and their stuff takes up room.”

“It won’t be forever, Dean,” Castiel added. “When they are old enough to want their own rooms, we can always do the same to two other rooms.”

“When they’re old enough to need their own rooms, they’ll be old enough to understand that this place isn’t a normal home and by then, I want a normal house,” Dean said, not realizing how badly he truly wanted a _home_ until he said the words. “I… I want a big house for all three of us and the triplets to have their own rooms and a backyard and I get a freakin’ five bedroom house is gonna be expensive but I don’t want the kids growing up around this shit, Cas,” he said, a pleading tone entering his voice.

Castiel was quick to respond to his boyfriend’s growing distress, crossing the small space to the hunter and wrapping him up in a warm embrace. “Then they won’t,” he assured him in a gentle tone, one arm wrapped securely around Dean’s waist while the other hand rubbed up and down his spine. “We’ll do this room for now and when they’re born and we’re ready, we’ll find a home big enough for the six of us.”

Dean let out a shuddering breath as he leaned into the angel, wrapping his arms tightly around him. “I don’t know if I could ever completely stop hunting but I do know that this place isn’t a place for kids,” he said quietly. “We can have a house and still use the bunker when we need, right?”

“Of course,” Castiel assured him. “Having one does not mean we cannot have the other.”

Dean nodded against his shoulder then took a deep, cleansing breath. “Okay,” he said, gently extricating himself from his angel’s hold to examine the room once more. “I guess your way works the best. We’ll have to decorate though,” he added, grimacing as he eyed the gray scheme of the room. “It’s too boring and bland for a nursery.”

Castiel nodded in understanding. “Then that’s what we’ll do. Though I understand painting is not a job for a pregnant person so if we paint the walls, Sam will help me.”

Dean rolled his eyes, wanting to argue that the eggs weren’t really connected to him but he knew that, like Sam’s argument about the alcohol, Castiel wouldn’t relent just in case.

“Yeah, okay,” he said, flicking the light out and exiting the room.

 

~~~

 

“I don’t think one room will be big enough,” Dean grumbled from his place at one of the library tables, laptop open in front of him.

Sam’s brow furrowed as he looked up from the book he’d been reading, clearly confused about the random statement. A glance at Castiel proved unhelpful as the angel seemed just as confused. “Care to explain what you’re talking about, Dean?” he said. “Because I have no idea what you mean.”

“For the nursery,” Dean snapped as if Sam should have understood what room he’d been talking about. “One room just won’t fit everything we need and besides that, trying to decide where to fit just the basics seems like it’d be too crowded. Triplets take up a lot of space.”

It had only been two days since Castiel and Dean had mentally mapped out the layout of the nursery but in his search for quality furniture (because Dean Winchester would be damned – again – if _his_ kids didn’t have the best, safest furniture), Dean had discovered that there were other items in nurseries that he hadn’t thought about. And he kind of wanted some of them. Like a rocking chair. It would be useful when one or more of the triplets woke up and needed to be put back to sleep. And what if both of them had to tend to _all three_ of the triplets at the same time? _One_ rocker wouldn’t be enough!

He was starting to doubt that _one_ changing table would be enough, too. What if all three needed changing? It didn’t seem fair to make two of them wait in messy diapers while the first was changed. And one wouldn’t hold all the wipes and diapers and powder they’d probably need for _three_ babies. They’d need at least one more changing table to make diaper changes quicker and add storage space.

He explained all this to Sam and Cas, spinning his laptop around to show them the furniture he’d been looking at as he explained.

“I say we use the room between Sam’s room and our room for them to sleep in. We keep the cribs and the rocking chair and maybe an end table or two in that room then redo a second room for their dressers and changing tables,” he explained. “That way, they sleep safely between us and then there’s enough room for everything else. I still want to get a normal _house_ someday so there’s no point in doing something huge. Just clear out a bit more space.”

Castiel peered at the images of cribs, changing tables, and rocking chairs Dean had accumulated, slowly understanding Dean’s concerns. He had naively thought they could condense everything three infants would need into one room but now he understood that babies – especially multiples – took up a lot of space.

“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” Sam said. “What room did you want to clear out for the rest of their stuff?” he asked.

“I was thinking the one across from Cas’s old room would work,” Dean said with a shrug. It didn’t matter much where they kept the changing tables and dressers as long as the triplets slept safely between their rooms.

“Alright,” Sam said on a sight as set his book aside and stood, stretching his arms up before dropping them with a relaxed breath. “Cas, you up for a little more moving?”

Castiel nodded as he stood. “Of course.”

“Thanks, you guys,” Dean said with a sheepish smile as the two exited the library.

He really wanted to help with the nursery (and now the add-on) but Cas hadn’t allowed him to help clear out anything so far. And he wouldn’t be allowed to paint if they chose to paint the rooms, and once all the furniture was ordered, he wouldn’t be able to help much with that except maybe handing Sam and Cas parts while _they_ put it together. But he’d have to rely on Cas and Sam to arrange everything and sure, his angel could easily move a large wardrobe as if it weighed nothing but that didn’t make the guilt Dean felt for being useless go away.

Then Dean realized that just because he couldn’t help with the basics, that didn’t mean he couldn’t help decorate. He could help fit the cribs with bedding or put things up on the walls. Sam had never had the chance to have his nursery decorated specifically for him; hell, his little brother had never had a nursery, period. Now they had a permanent _home_ and Dean had the opportunity to give his kids the best damn nursery he could.

Instead of looking at pieces of furniture for purchase, Dean changed his search to images and searched for nurseries to look for decorating ideas first Then he’d find pieces of furniture when he knew what kind of theme he was going for. He decided to avoid the images of rooms that were clearly all boy or all girl triplets and stay gender neutral in decorating since there was no way to see inside the eggs to see the triplets’ genders. One of the images, a nursery for a single baby, caught his attention.

It showcased the crib as the main feature, not much else of the room visible in frame. But it was the details around the crib that caught Dean’s eye. It was a dark wood crib with a tulle canopy that was parted to each side of the crib. In the space created between the tulle, the crib, and the canopy top, the baby’s name had been painted in an elegant calligraphy in black.

“I can do that,” Dean muttered, saving the photo to his computer for reference later. It might help them tell the triplets apart, too.

But it wasn’t something he could do _now._ They didn’t know what the genders were and couldn’t officially name the triplets until they hatched. So he went back to his previous nursery search, looking for other ideas for the room. After a few more pictures, he found a nursery where a quote was painted onto the wall. Intrigued, he changed his search to look at nursery wall quotes. He came across one in a frame and realized a framed one would be perfect for the brick wall opposite the cribs since he already had ideas for above the cribs so he changed his search again.

He blamed hormones (whether being pregnant with eggs messed with those or not, he didn’t know) when he came across one that had him tearing up and he just _knew_ he had to use that quote somehow. So he saved that image, too, so he could come back to the quote. Already, he could imagine the type of frame he wanted: movie poster sized with the extra white space around where the image would go except his image would be this quote.

Deciding that would be enough decoration for now, he went back to his shopping search for furniture, making sure to choose the option for nearby stores only. With the black and white he had going on with the words, canopy, and frame he imagined, he refined his search to dark wood cribs to fit the theme. He kept it simple since the more detailed, the more expensive and he needed _three,_ and because he already had plans for detailing around the cribs anyway. Once he found the perfect one, he found it on the store’s site – thankfully, it was in a store in the next town over – and added a quantity of three to his online cart. He was pleased to find that this store sold crib canopies as well and chose a style, adding three of those, too.

Since they’d need three cribs, two or three dressers and changing tables and would have to put it all together, he didn’t want to buy too much furniture at once. At least he had cribs chosen. So he finalized the order, putting in one of their fake credit cards as payment, and chose to pick up in store.

Pleased with himself, he shut down the laptop and pushed himself to his feet, deciding to check on his boyfriend and brother and see about dinner.

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The steps Dean takes in his random search for nursery ideas is basically the steps I went through to piece together what I wanted the nursery to look like, lol!


	5. Chapter 4

As sleep slowly gave way to wakefulness, Dean yawned and snuggled deeper into the warmth around him. Realizing he was wrapped in Cas’s arms, he snaked an arm around his angel, sighing happily as he nuzzled into the angel’s neck. After a few silent moments, the hunter became aware of a palm slowly sweeping back and forth across his belly. When he opened one eye, he saw Cas’s palm moving in circles over the now small but obvious swell of Dean’s belly.

“How long have you been doing that?” the hunter grumbled.

“Not long. Did I wake you?” Castiel asked in an apologetic tone, hand going still over Dean’s belly.

“No,” Dean groaned as he wiggled onto his back to stretch, unintentionally forcing Castiel to remove his hand. When he’d completed his stretch, he put his own palms to his belly, smoothing them up and down and making a thoughtful noise.

“I’m, what?, about ten-ish weeks now?” he said. “I keep thinking I shouldn’t be this big for two and a half months.”

“You are basing your assumptions on a normal human woman pregnant with one child-”

“-and none of that applies to me,” Dean finished. “I know. I just feel… self-conscious, I think.”

“You are beautiful, Dean,” Castiel assured, slipping a palm back onto Dean’s belly and leaning into his boyfriend to press a kiss to the corner of his mouth.

Dean felt his cheeks flush and mumbled a “thank you” before wiggling away and pushing himself to his feet. “We gotta pick up the cribs today. When I ordered them, they said it’d take a few days.”

Castiel nodded and gracefully rose to his feet. “Sam and I can do that. You should rest. How are you feeling this morning?”

“Cas,” Dean sighed, pausing in rifling through his dresser for clean clothes to aim a pleading look at the angel. “I can’t stay cooped up in the bunker for the next several months. Right now, I just look like I need to lay off the pie; I’m not big enough to arouse suspicion. So while I have the chance, I’m going out. And I feel fine for now.”

“That’s what you said the last few mornings but a few hours after waking, you vomited,” Castiel pointed out.

Dean only made a vague sound of acknowledgment before returning to his hunt for new clothes. Yeah, he still got sick at least once a day but he was still technically early in his pregnancy even if he felt big enough to be further along. But for all they knew, it would linger the whole time (he hated to think he'd spend the next several months getting sick every morning but he knew it happened) and as he toled Cas, he couldn't spend the months leading to the triplets' birth cooped up in the bunker.

“We’ll need your truck,” he said, gathering his bundle of clothes and moving toward the hallway, intending to go shower. “I don’t think Baby’s trunk is big enough for boxes that large with the weapons underneath and the backseat is probably definitely not big enough.”

“Alright,” Castiel agreed, gathering his own clothes and following the hunter. While he technically didn’t _need_ to shower, it was sometimes nice to share the intimate moment with Dean.

When they entered the bathroom closest to Dean’s room, they left their clothes on the counter and Castiel gathered towels while Dean started the water so it would be warm when they stepped in. As soon as Dean discarded his sleep shirt, he turned sideways in front of the mirrors above the double sinks and trailed a hand down the swell of his belly. It still shocked him sometimes that he was pregnant with angel eggs but at the same time, the thought that the kids inside were _Cas’s_ made it less jarring. It filled him with warmth to imagine a baby with Cas’s dark hair or striking blue eyes.

Cas’s reflection joined his in the mirror, the angel bare chested. He pressed his chest to Dean’s back and the hunter leaned into the warmth behind him. When Cas’s arms snaked around him, he placed his hands over the angel’s, letting Cas explore his changing body.

“Will we be able to feel them?” he asked quietly, curious but unwilling to break the calm atmosphere.

“No,” Castiel said, his tone giving away his own disappointment. “Not in the way you’re imagining. They might move a small bit inside their eggs when they’re more mature which might jostle the eggs enough for you to feel some sort of sensation but you won’t feel kicks or hands pressing out for more room. And I won’t be able to feel anything from the outside.”

“Oh,” was all Dean could mumble, disappointed himself that Cas couldn’t share this with him. All his boyfriend could do was watch Dean grow bigger. They couldn’t share sonogram pictures of their babies or experiences their babies kicking.

Sensing his boyfriend’s deteriorating mood, Castiel nuzzled into his neck and pressed kisses up his jaw to his cheek. “It’s alright, Dean,” he assured. “I don’t need to feel them to know they’re there. As I told you in the earlier weeks, I can sense their grace inside you. And I can see what they’re doing to your body.”

“Making me fat?” Dean grumbled.

“You are not getting fat,” Castiel countered with a roll of his eyes and a sweep of his palms down and back up Dean’s belly. “No matter how big you swell with our offspring, I will still find you beautiful.”

Dean felt his cheeks flush again and mumbled "sap" before turning in Cas's arms, putting his belly between them, and leaning in to kiss his angel, long and slow. He felt Cas's hands move down to his hips and he melted into the touch. The kiss didn't last long before he pulled away, reminding Cas that the water was probably warm by now and they didn't want to let it get cold.

As he moved to remove his sleep pants, his hands were batted away and he gave Cas a bemused smirk as the angel undid them for him. Then he slowly crouched down onto his knees, pulling Dean's jeans and boxers with him. Once he'd gotten Dean to step out of them, he trailed his fingertips up Dean's calves, gently nudging him to widen his stance a bit, then up his thighs, sending shivers through the hunter.

"Cas," he breathed.

"You are beautiful," Castiel repeated before lightly gripping the base of Dean's cock in one hand to guide it into his mouth. He swirled his tongue around it as he slowly took in the full length until his nose met the underside of Dean's belly where he nuzzled lightly before slowly pulling back off only to repeat until he'd set a steady pace.

"Cas," Dean breathed as his cock responded eagerly, filling out and hardening in the wet warmth of his angel's mouth. He reached down to grip a fistful of Cas's hair though not hard enough to stop him; hell, Dean didn't _want_ to stop him. "Shit, Cas..."

Cas hummed around his cock, whether in acknowledgement or purely because he knew what the vibrations did to Dean, the hunter wasn't sure but it still had him hardening further and trembling as sparks of pleasure raced through him. He had to reach behind himself to grip the counter's edge with his other hand, his breathing growing heavier.

"So hot," he breathed, carding his fingers through Cas's har as he smiled down at him. "Love when you get on your knees and suck me off... You got the best mouth for it."

Cas responded with a firm suck around Dean's cock and the hunter tipped his head back and groaned in response. Then he pulled off to lick at the underside, stroking his hand quickly up and down the shaft. He licked his lips as he smiled up at his hunter before taking Dean back into his mouth and repeating his earlier bobbing and sucking.

"Cas... Cas, I'm 'onna..." Dean panted, trying to warn the angel how close he was around pants for air. "Been too long; not gonna last..."

Either Cas didn't listen or didn't care; he continued sucking Dean off, bobbing his head quicker until he felt Dean coming down his throat. He easily swallowed it all down then slowly pulled off, not wanting to cause Dean discomfort by accidentally overstimulating his sensitve cock while the hunter trembled through the aftershocks.

"Holy shit," Dean breathed with a sated smile as Cas rose to his feet again. "Wasn't expecting that."

Cas smirked as he gathered his hunter into his arms. "I wanted you to see that I still find you sexually attractive no matter how large our offspring make you."

Dean snorted but it didn't hold any real heat. "Remind me again when I'm nine months in and feeling like a whale."

Cas chuckled before pressing his lips to Dean's and gently prodding his tongue into the hunter's mouth, making Dean groan when he tasted himself in his angel’s mouth. When the kiss ended, Cas quickly removed his own clothing then helped Dean into the shower, the water thankfully still warm but not hot anymore.

Cas immediately arranged them so Dean was under the spray, his back to the wall and the hunter tipped his head back to wet his hair. He heard the snap of the shampoo bottle being opened then snapped shut and when he straightened again, hands were immediately in his hair, kneading into his scalp and he could feel the lather of the shampoo being worked in. He stepped closer to Cas, away from the spray.

“Cas,” he groaned in appreciation, too relaxed at the angel’s gentle ministrations to truly protest.

“Head back,” Castiel commanded in a quiet, calm tone that Dean was as helpless to obey as if Castiel had went full Angel of the Lord and _demanded_ in that deep, growling voice while flashing the shadows of his wings. He gently nudged Dean back toward the water to rinse.

He sighed happily and closed his eyes as Cas’s fingers ran through his hair as the angel rinsed the shampoo out. When they finally retreated, Dean opened his eyes and tipped his head up again, a little confused to see Cas soaping up the washcloth; they did wash each other sometimes when showering together, enjoyed the intimacy of caring for one another, but Cas hadn’t even let him reciprocate the shampooing yet.

“Cas, you don’t have to- Let me do your hair first,” he said, reaching for the shampoo but before he can get his hand on it, Cas batted his hand away.

“Dean,” he said in that almost sigh that meant _I’ve got something to tell you but it makes me uneasy to admit and I don’t know how you’ll take it and am scared you’ll think badly of me._ “You’re my mate. And you’re carrying my offspring. It’s… instinct to want to care for you. Please. Let me wash you.”

Dean can’t say no to that tone or the almost pleading look his boyfriend gave him. So he drops his hands and nods. “Okay, Cas. If it makes you feel better, have at it. I just didn’t want to be selfish,” he said, switching position with Cas so he was opposite the water while the angel washed him.

Cas’s smile in return was a mix of relief and affection. He raised the soapy washcloth and started at Dean’s neck and shoulders, working down his arms and chest in slow, small circles. His touch became even more gentle and careful when he reached the soft swell of Dean’s belly. Dean pressed his hands into his lower back and pushed his belly out slightly, welcoming the touch.

Cas washed over his belly and hips with tender touches. Then he gently tugged Dean against his chest and began to wash down his back. Once he was satisfied Dean was clean, he abandoned the cloth and set to kneading out any knots he felt in the muscles down Dean’s neck, shoulders, and back. He did find a few and as he deftly worked them out, Dean leaned more heavily into him and groaned in satisfaction.

“Shit, that feels good,” he murmured as tension he hadn’t even noticed he was carrying melted away.

When Castiel finished, Dean was a boneless weight against his chest though the angel didn’t mind. He pressed a kiss to Dean’s temple then gently nudged him back toward the water to rinse away the soap. When he was satisfied Dean was clean, he reached back to turn off the water.

“Cas,” Dean attempted to protest, reaching to turn it back on though Cas gently grabbed his hand to stop him.

“The water is getting cooler,” he said. “You shouldn’t stay under it. I am fine, Dean. I am happy to bathe you and make you feel good.”

“Next time,” Dean grumbled because he wasn’t going to completely submit without a token protest.

“Next time,” Castiel agreed with a chuckle.

Cas picked up one of the soft, fluffy towels and gently patted his hunter dry then helped him step into his boxers and jeans, frowning worriedly as he watched Dean pull the button together then zip them up.

“We should get you new pants,” he said. “Those seem like they barely fit.”

Dean nodded as he tugged on his t-shirt then pulled his flannel on. “We can do that while we’re out,” he agreed. “I have another extra errand I want to do while we’re in town anyway.”

“What’s that?” Cas asked as he pulled on his own clothes.

“A surprise,” Dean said cryptically, winking at his boyfriend. “It’s for the nursery. You’ll see it soon, promise.”

~~~

A couple hours later, after breakfast and making plans for their errands, Cas and Dean piled into Cas’s truck while Sam followed with Baby for the trip to the neighboring town. This way, Sam and Cas could do the heavy lifting and Dean could have a vehicle run his other errand with. It didn’t take long to find the baby store Dean had ordered the furniture from and they found parking spots beside each other.

“You two go in and get everything,” Dean said, hopping out of the truck and holding his hand out for the keys to the Impala. “I can’t lift any of it anyway and I have another errand to run.”

“I thought you only needed new clothes,” Sam said, brow pinching in confusion as he passed Dean the keys.

“I do,” Dean assured him. “But I have a surprise for the nursery I need to go get. I’ll be back.”

Sam nodded and they agreed to meet back there before going clothes shopping, and Dean slipped into the Impala.

“I won’t be long,” he called through the open window before backing out and exiting the parking lot.

He used the maps app on his phone to find the office store he’d found through Google Maps on his laptop a few days ago. They offered printing even poster size and even said they’d laminate for him. As he climbed out of the car and made his way across the parking lot, he reached his hand into his jacket pocket for the flash drive he’d sneaked out of Sam’s laptop case. He’d put it back once he cleared his design out of it.

As he stepped into the air conditioned store, he glanced around, hunter’s training kicking in as hey surveyed the area. For just after ten in the morning, the store was mostly empty save for the teenage boy standing behind the counter at the computer. As Dean watched, the kid pushed his black, thick-rimmed glasses up his nose.

“Um, excuse me,” Dean said gruffly as he stepped up to the counter.

Immediately, the kid straightened and grinned at him. “Good morning, sir, what can I help you with?”

“Listen, uh…” Dean glanced down at the kid’s nametag. “Max. I, uh… I need a poster printed.”

“Sure thing!” Max chirped, clacking away at the keyboard. “What’s the name you put the order in under?”

“I, uh… Didn’t know I had to,” Dean admitted, pulling out his flash drive. “I made it up myself. I just need you to print it.

Max frowned as he eyed the little stick in Dean’s hand. “I’m not really supposed to accept orders that way. Viruses, you know? But…” he said, looking around the empty store. “My boss isn’t even here and you look like you aren’t tech savvy – no offense!” he quickly added.

“None taken,” Dean said, a reluctant smile curling his lips up; the kid wasn’t wrong.

Without another word, Max held his hand out for the flash drive. He put it into his computer and when it opened, he turned the screen for Dean to see. “Only thing on here is an image labeled ‘poster’,” he said. “That the one?”

Dean nodded. “Yeah, that’s it. It’s, uh… for my kids’ nursery,” he admitted, resisting the urge to touch his belly.

“That’s sweet,” Max said then opened the preview, his smile growing as he looked over what Dean had put together. “You know, sir, this looks pretty good. You’re better than I thought you were. And that saying is sweet.”

“Thanks,” Dean mumbled, scrubbing at the back of his neck.

“So, do you want it laminated or framed or both, or…?” Max asked, trailing off to let Dean answer.

“I wanted it movie poster sized and put in one of those black frames that has the white around the actual image instead of the image filling the whole frame.”

Max hummed thoughtfully and clicked away at the computer a moment. “Okay, wait here a sec,” he said before jogging out from behind the counter and disappearing into one of the small aisle of office supplies. When he returned, he held a large frame in his hands, exactly like Dean imagined. “How’s this?”

“Perfect!” Dean agreed with a grin. This was going better than he’d thought it would.

Max laid the frame on the counter and typed at the computer. “Do you want it laminated?”

“Do I have to if it’s going in the frame?” Dean asked.

“I would just in case you ever want it out of the frame. Keep it protected better than if it’s just paper. Plus, it’ll look glossier and clearer than just printed paper.”

Dean nodded his understanding. “Okay, do that then.”

“Alrighty,” Max said, elongating the word as he fell into his work a moment. “Okay, one poster sized image, laminated, and framed, plus the cost of the frame… and I can have that done in about an hour. That cool?”

Dean nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got a couple other errands to run.”

“Great, I’ll have it ready for you!”

Dean nodded his thanks and left the store. When he got back to the baby store, Sam and Cas were loading the bed of Cas’s truck with the three crib boxes. When he stepped out of the Impala, before he could say anything, Cas quickly closed the distance between the two, gently clasped Dean’s cheeks between his palms, and pressed his lips to the hunter’s in a passionate kiss that was just this side of publically acceptable.

“What was that for?” Dean asked with a chuckle when the angel finally broke the kiss.

“I love the cribs you’ve chosen and Sam explained to me what those things made of soft material in those packages are used for and I like it so far,” Cas explained. “You did a great job picking out items to furnish the nursery with.”

“I had this idea of painting the triplets’ names on the walls above their cribs – _after_ they’re born and we can actually _name_ them. Then I won’t be pregnant anymore and can do the painting.”

“I didn’t know you could paint,” Sam said curiously from where he’d been letting the couple have their moment.

Dean shrugged. “Never needed to except for devil’s traps and other warding symbols which don’t give much leeway for showing off skills.”

Sam made a vague sound of agreement to that.

“I think painting the fledglings’ names on the walls over their cribs is a wonderful idea,” Cas praised, slipping his hand down to clasp one of Dean’s.

Dean grinned proudly at the praise.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is _still_ more to do with the nursery, lol!
> 
> I’ve also got a vague idea of something that I want to do later in the fic that falls under “deals with his regular life with a belly full of eggs.” To me, “regular life” equates to “hunting” no matter how domestic life in the bunker can get. So… I’ve got something planned. ;)
> 
> And I also know what I’m doing with the part of the prompt that said Dean has to make a nest. But that doesn’t come til near the end of the pregnancy.
> 
> Not sure how to fit in the bonus of Dean gaining temporary or permanent abilities of the species he’s carrying but I’m trying to think of _something..._


	6. Chapter 5

Once their errands were complete, the three made the trip back home. After a quick lunch, Cas and Sam hauled the boxes to the main part of the nursery and Dean went to the garage to get his tools. They’d turned it into a game, seeing who could put together their crib first, Sam against Cas and Dean.

(“That’s two against one,” Sam had whined.

“Yeah, but Cas doesn’t have a clue how to use this stuff so, really, it’s pretty even,” Dean countered. "Besides, I'm pregnant; I need help," he added with a smirk which earned him a roll of the eyes from his little brother.)

In the end, it came out pretty close to a tie and they all worked together to do the third. Then they hung the canopies and Dean arranged and secured them how he’d envisioned, pleased that it turned out well.

Now, the pregnant hunter stood at one end of the nursery, hands cradling the small swell of his belly as he smiled at the three identical cribs arranged in a U on the other side of the room. He imagined what it would look like once the names were painted.

“I can’t wait to meet you,” he murmured toward his belly, caressing one hand up the small dome then back down. “Then I’ll know what to call you instead of just ‘the eggs’ or ‘the kids’.”

“Dean?”

Dean startled and immediately dropped his hands from his belly as he whirled around to face the door. His wide eyes narrowed into a glare when they landed on his boyfriend.

“Don’t do that,” he snapped.

“Sorry,” Cas said with a sheepish smile as he entered the nursery and turned to take in their finished work. “This turned out well.”

Dean snorted. “I haven’t even got the names painted on yet.”

“No, but the dark wood and the white tulle against the neutral wall color makes it feel warm but not oppressively dark in here,” Cas explained.

Dean hummed thoughtfully as he tried to see it the way Cas saw it then smiled when he realized his angel was right. “I’ve got something else for the nursery,” he said, turning away from the cribs to gesture to the expanse of exposed brick behind them. “We’ll put a rocker over here but I’ve got something to fill the wall with. It’s… kind of a present for _you_ even though it’s for the nursery.”

“For me?” Cas asked, puzzled. “If it’s for the nursery, how is it a gift for me?”

“Just… It just is,” Dean huffed. “I wanted to surprise you, okay? Just… wait here.”

Cas nodded and Dean disappeared out the garage where he’d hidden his framed poster. Shortly after dinner, he’d excused himself and hidden away in the garage, his gift and some supplies tucked away in Baby’s trunk. It had been a pain in the ass trying to wrap something that large but he’d done it. Now, he found where he’d hidden it and hurried back to the nursery.

“Here,” he said, offering it to Cas.

Castiel frowned in confusion and gently took it, turning it carefully this way and that.

Dean snorted. “You can’t guess what it is. Just open it.”

Nodding, Castiel tore at one of the folds of paper. Once he had a good spot started, he pulled harder until the wrapping fell away. When he was met will solid black, he turned the object around then had to reorient it when what he was looking at was upside down.

“If ever there comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart; I’ll stay there forever,” he read. The words were in a freestyle font that wasn’t as plain as printed text but easier to read than an elegant script and were cured around two faceless, generic men holding a faceless, generic toddler between them.

“I saw that quote when looking for nursery ideas,” Dean said quietly, unsure about how Cas felt. “I thought… since shit happens to us all the time… if anything ever happened to you or me… and we weren’t around anymore… the triplets would have something to remind them of us. It’s not exactly _us_ I know, but-”

He was cut off when lips pressed insistently into his and a warm palm slid against one of his cheeks. The kiss was short but served its intended purpose of silencing Dean’s nervous rambling.

“Dean,” Cas said with a small smile, “I love it. It’s perfect. And large enough to break up the expanse of brick.”

Dean scrubbed at the back of his neck, his cheeks heating up. “I’m glad you like it,” he said. “I saw it and I just _knew_... It… It kind of made me tear up,” he admitted with a huff. “That reminds me – can angel eggs mess with hormones? ‘Cause that’s a better explanation than me just crying like a bitch.”

Cas tilted his head thoughtfully. “I suppose they could,” he said slowly after a moment. “Like being sick, fluctuating hormones could be one of your body’s responses to the foreign intrusion of our offspring like with a human pregnancy.”

“Okay. Good,” Dean said with a nod. “Not like I _want_ to start losing my shit over some sappy words but at least it’s not my fault.”

Cas chuckled and offered Dean the frame instead of commenting on how he wouldn’t blame Dean if he cried because he knew the hunter would react with defensive anger and he didn’t want to upset his pregnant mate. “How do we hang this?”

 

~~~

 

“What about your parents?”

Dean tensed in Cas’s arms where the two sat close together at one of the library tables a few mornings later, Dean against Cas’s chest and the angel’s hands roaming over the still manageable but ever-growing swell of his mate’s belly. Sam’s laptop sat open in front of them, a Google search open but nothing typed in yet. The youngest Winchester had gone out for a morning run before breakfast so Dean and Castiel took the opportunity to try and come up with names for the kids.

They had decided that, even if they still had several months before the eggs would be laid and hatched, they’d start picking out names now, utilizing as much time as they needed. Since they needed three boy and three girl names to cover any combination the eggs may turn out to be, they knew the process might be long. So far, they hadn’t agreed on where to even _start_.

“We’re not naming any of our kids after my parents, or Bobby, or Ellen, or anyone that we’ve gotten killed,” Dean snarled, hands balling into fists where they hovered over the laptop’s keyboard.

“Your mother’s death was not your fault,” Cas whispered, putting a little more pressure into his caresses.

“Cas,” Dean warned. “ _No._ Besides, what if we decide on those names but we get all boys or all girls? It doesn’t seem right to have a baby with my mom’s name without Dad’s or the other way around.”

Cas made a thoughtful hum against Dean’s shoulder. “Alright, that’s fair.”

Dean made a vague sound of acknowledgement, his hands slowly uncurling.

“Are you opposed to names of angelic origin?” the angel asked.

Dean reluctantly shrugged. “I suppose not. I mean, _Castiel_ isn’t terrible,” he added with a small, teasing smile. “There are a few that aren’t bad. I reserve the right to veto any angel name if it’s too weird or one of your dick siblings’ names though.”

“Alright,” Castiel agreed and watched Dean type _angelic baby names_ into the search then picked the first result and scrolled past the introduction to the lists.

The hunter snorted at the first set of names. “These are just versions of the word ‘angel’,” he said. “Angela, Angelo, Angelica? No,” he decided as he scrolled past.

“I actually agree,” Cas muttered. “It’s too obvious, not at all creative, and the eggs aren’t even full angels anyway.”

Dean hummed in agreement as he scrolled down to the next section of suggestions. The third one down made him chuckle. “Cassiel? That’s not supposed to be _you,_ is it?”

Castiel peered at the screen, reading the small definition beside the word. “The angel of temperance. I don’t think that’s supposed to be me.”

Curious and easily distracted, Dean opened a second tab to search the name in Google. After a couple of quick scans of a couple results, he shrugged and went back to the name list. “I don’t think it’s you,” he agreed. “What are you the angel of anyway?”

Cas’s eyes dropped away from Dean’s and his arms tightened marginally around his mate. “The angel of solitude and tears. My day is Thursday and my month is November.”

“Hey,” Dean said softly, gently nuzzling Cas’s jaw. “You’re not alone, Cas. You never have to be alone ever again, okay? You got me and Sammy and our kids.”

Cas hesitantly met Dean’s eyes, a small smile curling his lips upward. “Thank you, Dean.”

They sat in silence for a few seconds then Dean pressed a kiss to his angel’s jaw before turning back to the computer and scrolling to the next section.

“I would prefer not to use those,” Castiel said quietly, reaching around Dean to point at the screen where _Michael_ , _Gabriel_ , and _Raphael_ were listed together.

“Totally agree on that one,” Dean said with a nod.

They excluded any that were too strange to blend in with humans, ones that Dean couldn’t even _pronounce_ , and names that reminded them of other angels they’d tangled with – Uriel was another that popped up on the list. Dean vetoed Cas’s suggestion of “Ariel” because it reminded him of the movie with the mermaid who wanted to be human which had always made him uneasy. Cas had vetoed Dean’s suggestion of Micah because it sounded too similar to Michael.

“Nathaniel,” Cas suggested, pointing to it down on the list.

Dean nodded thoughtfully then opened a text document and typed it in. “So we have a place to keep all the ones we’ve agreed on so we can go over them again,” he explained when he saw Cas’s confused head tilt.

“Jophiel doesn’t sound bad,” Dean said, pointing it out. “We could call him Joe or Joey.”

Cas’s brow furrowed in thought then he nodded. “I like that. Angelic but with a simple nickname.”

Dean added it to the list.

They went to the next page of the article which was listed as “Angels in Movies.”

“The first one is a no,” Cas growled when he scanned the list and Dean nodded.

“Yeah, no, we’re not naming our kid Clarence,” he said. “Makes me think of Meg.”

They didn’t like any of the others on the list so Dean backtracked and chose another Google result to comb through. When Dean scrolled down to the list, he laughed as soon as he saw the second name listed.

“It’s you!” Dean said through his laughter. “Listen to the blurb they wrote about it. ‘Castiel soared to the top on the wings of the angel hero from Carver Edlund’s most famous series of books, the _Supernatural_ series’,” he read before dissolving into chuckles again.

“Hilarious,” Cas deadpanned before reaching around the hunter to scroll further.

“Aw, Cas, don’t be like that,” Dean chuckled, nudging his boyfriend. “You’re popular. I’m sure if we found the right search parameters, mine and Sam’s names would make some list somewhere.”

Several names down, Dean was proven right when “Samuel” made an appearance.

“Not a word,” he said, scrolling further down while Cas chuckled.

A few more names down, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or shudder when “Abbadon” made an appearance but under the “boy” section.

“Needless to say, that’s a no for either a boy or girl,” he growled before moving on.

“Agreed.”

As they were going over the rst of that list, Sam returned from his run. He offered to help if they wanted after his shower and they agreed though Dean decided they were taking a break for breakfast now that Sam was back. He and Cas cooked (Cas mostly handed Dean items when asked) then the three ate together while Dean and Cas explained what they’d come up with so far. When they were finished and returned to the library, they didn’t add any more from the list they’d been looking at when Sam had returned, and when Dean went back to Google, he cleared the search and leaned into Cas with a sigh.

“Okay, angel names aren’t panning out,” he said.

“What if you try searching for names that mean something specific?” Sam suggested. “Like ‘good’ or ‘light’.”

“Any child of yours would have a bright, pure soul,” Cas agreed.

“Sap,” Dean muttered as he typed in _names that mean light._

“Lucien,” Dean said partway down the first result he’d chosen, not suggesting the name so much as testing it out.

Sam made a face and shook his head. “Please don’t use Lucien. Too close to ‘Lucifer’.”

Dean shot his brother an apologetic smile and scrolled on.

“Roxana,” Cas suggested thoughtfully further down.

“Roxy Winchester,” Dean said, testing the name out. “I kinda like that. It sounds like she’d be a badass like us.”

Castiel chuckled and nodded. “Roxana Winchester. I like that one. It would fit a firstborn perfectly as it means ‘dawn’ or ‘first light’.”

Dean added it to the list and added bold to it since they seemed to agree more on that one than the others.

” _Uriela_?” he said through laughter a few names down. “Oh, man, I almost wish that dick was still alive just so I could use that as an insult!”

“Moving on,” Cas growled. “What about Saints’ names? They’re pure and good.”

Dean shrugged in vague agreement and added it to the search.

The first result they found had a long list for both boys and girls so they went over both. They really only liked “Elizabeth” out of that list but not as much as they liked “Roxana” so far.

“I think you’ve definitely found one of the names,” Sam said. “You guys keep mentioning how you don’t like a name as much as Roxana.”

Cas nodded. “I like the name no matter what the meaning and Sam’s right – we keep getting stuck on that one.”

“Okay, then if we have any girls, at least one will be named Roxana Winchester,” Dean said with finality, making a note in his text document.

They went over the boys’ names, making note of ones that they liked for first and middle names. They decided they liked “Alexander” and “Christopher” as first names and “Andrew,” “David,” “Joseph” and “Matthew.” Sam agreed that since they were all one or two syllables, they would balance out a long first name with “Winchester.”

Dean had tried suggesting Daniel because it was like a mix of his and Cas’s names but Cas had vetoed that idea, adding mixed names to the “not allowed” list with relatives and angels they’d dealt with. The hunter had also suggested “Paul” because “The Beatles, man!” but that had been another no from Cas.

“We’re not naming our offspring after any classic rock performers,” the angel said firmly. “You’ve used a ton of them as aliases already.”

Sam agreed with Cas’s logic on that one.

They went back to their list and wound up taking out all the angel names they’d originally chosen, not liking any of them as much as the saints’ names. That didn’t leave them with very many to choose from, especially for first names, so they went back to searching, taking out any meaning and just searching for popular baby names.

“Tristan,” Dean said, testing the name out. “Tristan Winchester. No nickname but then again, I didn’t really have one.

“Unless you count the fact that I called you De when I was five,” Sam said with a chuckle, his dimples showing.

Cas chuckled at the image of a young Sam and Dean.

“They don’t have to have nicknames, do they?” Sam asked. “I mean, I know it’d be nice but it’s not necessary if you really like a name.”

“I guess not,” Dean mumbled, thinking over the name in his head. “And I do kind of like Tristan for some reason.”

“Add it to the list and we can come back to it,” Cas suggested.

They didn’t find any more boys’ names that stood out so they went back to the list to play around with what they had, testing out how each name sounded with “Winchester.” In the end, they decided “Alexander” would be their top choice, followed by “Tristan,” then “Christopher.”

“Okay, girls,” Dean said.

“I don’t think we have enough choices for that,” Cas said in a tone that almost sounded defeated. “We had far more male names chosen than female names and we still struggled.”

“Yeah, just picking the boys’ names was a challenge,” Dean agreed. “What else should we search for?”

“Names that mean something strong?” Cas suggested. “You liked Roxy because it sounded like she’d be a strong person.”

Dean nodded and searched for strong baby girl names and chose the first result since it’d been the same site they’d been to for several other searches.

When they came across “Rosa” on the list, they agreed that “Rose” was a good option for a middle name and Dean added it to the list.

“Grace,” Dean said with a teasing smirk at his angel boyfriend who glared at the hunter until Dean scrolled on only to chirp “Cassandra” with a chuckle a few names later.

Again, he was met with a decidedly not amused expression.

“Emmanuelle,” Dean suggested, almost seriously but was met, again, with a glare. “What, we could call her Emmy!”

“Dean, be serious,” Cas sighed.

“I am, I am,” Dean assured then leaned over to kiss the corner of Cas’s mouth to placate the angel. “I swear, I am, Cas. No to Emmanuelle, then. What about Emeline? We can still call her Emmy.”

Cas reluctantly allowed that one onto the list.

After a couple more rounds of searching (in which they stopped trying to put certain meanings to the names because it was making options limited; instead, they focused on names they liked no matter what they meant), they had enough names to play with. They already knew that “Roxana” would be their first choice. Cas allowed “Emeline” to become their second choice. And Sam pointed out that “Rose,” while short, might sound alright and they already had Tristan as a short name in their boys’ category.

“Okay,” Dean said with finality as he closed Sam’s laptop. “Alexander, Tristan, Christopher, Roxana, Emeline, and Rose. I think we’ve covered the first names at least.”

“It’s a start,” Sam agreed. “And you have months to decide if you two don’t like any of them anymore and figure out middle names.”

The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging in the den on soft cushions with his angel kneading his aching hips, back, and shoulders.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I definitely know what genders (and in what order) the trips will be and I know exactly which of those six names I am using for which triplet. But if the person who prompted this fic has any suggestions/opinions, they are subject to change.
> 
> Also, picking out _six_ names is _hard!_ I wanted them to be ones that sounded logical for Cas and Dean to actually choose and that got tough! So I realize _Dean_ choosing _Tristan_ might be seriously OOC but I just needed a slot filled. And I’ve been stuck on that name (as a name and not just because of Jared) so I figured I’d slip it in there as a filler. It’s not one of the trips’ names. ;)
> 
> And no, I did not choose Alexander for Alexander Calvert, lol. I genuinely liked Alexander as a name when I came across it. I’ve actually liked that name since I was in middle school when I read a series called _Vampire Kisses_ in which the main vampire’s name is Alexander Sterling.
> 
> Aaaand, I have a friend commissioned to draw me the nursery (both halves!) so I'll add that in when she's finished. Probably in whatever chapter the boys actually _finish_ the nursery in here, lol.


	7. Chapter 6

Over the course of the next few weeks, they steadily acquired more furniture for the triplets’ nurseries. A glider with matching ottoman was added to the room where the triplets would sleep – Dean had tested several in the store they’d gone to before he’d deemed one comfortable enough – to help put them to sleep and in case any woke in the middle of the night. Despite how logical it sounded to have a second one, the room just wasn’t big enough for two gliders where they wanted them so Dean had reluctantly agreed on purchasing just one. Cas had assured him that if two or three needed rocking to sleep, they’d figure it out.

The room that Sam had teasingly referred to as “the triplets’ walk-in closet” had acquired three dressers and two changing tables. Dean argued that they’d definitely need more than one “just in case” and Sam had countered that they didn’t need three because how likely was it that  _all three_ triplets would need new diapers at once? He’d assured Dean that if they  _really_ thought they needed a third later on, they could get one.

For more storage, Dean had bought a simple dark wood shelving unit. It was divided into sixteen open squares which made nice cubbies to hold extra diaper packages, powders, wipes, ointments, and anything else they might need extras of that wouldn’t fit in the changing tables. Then Sam had purchased plastic woven style baskets in a few pastel colors and labeled them with things like “ointment” and “powder” and “wipes.” He put them in twelve of the cubbies but left the last four empty for diaper packages and any other large items that wouldn’t need to be stored in baskets.

Dean hated to admit it but he kind of liked the way that organized what they would need.

By the time Dean made it to fourteen weeks – safely into the second trimester – he’d deemed the nursery – both halves – mostly finished already. Which was something he’d wanted to accomplish while he was still small enough to move comfortably. Sure, they still had to buy actual supplies like the diapers and clothes and bedding and pacifiers but the  _big_ items were accounted for.

But without work to do in the nursery – things to build or hang up or organize or go out to purchase – the hunter quickly found himself feeling caged in, despite grocery runs with Sam or Cas once or twice a week. Ever since he was four and his father started hunting Yellow Eyes, Dean had always been on the move. First with Dad, then on his own, then with Sam. Even with the bunker, they didn’t spend more than a week, two at the most, at home, hunts popping up here and there to provide time away. A few hours a week wasn’t enough time to alleviate the restlessness.

“I  _need_ a hunt,” he growled one morning after breakfast sometime into his sixteenth week, palm slamming down onto the table and rattling their plates.

“Dean-” Sam started in that sympathetic  _I know you’re hurting and I_ _wanna_ _make it better but there’s nothing I can do_ tone that, right now, grated on Dean’s nerves.

“Sam, I’m going crazy here!” Dean snapped, throwing his hands up in the air. “We’ve never spent so many weeks at home in a row and a few hours here and there each week for grocery or supply runs isn’t cutting it.”

“Dean,” Cas soothed, reaching out in an attempt to rub Dean’s shoulders and neck to release the tension there but the hunter batted him away with a glare. The angel sighed and finished his thought without the added touch. “Dean, I understand you’re feeling cooped up here but a hunt is not a good idea in your condition.”

“We’ve hunted through all kinds of illnesses and injuries before,” Dean grumbled, his hands skimming over the now obvious dome of his belly at the mention of his “condition.” It wasn’t easily hidden under loose t-shirts anymore and resembled a woman a month or more further along with one child than his four months with three. Not for the first time, he caught himself imagining that now would be when he’d feel his baby if he were that far along. And if his babies weren’t encased in eggs – and the eggs probably added more weight than just the triplets alone. And that thought reminded him that he was going to get pretty large by the end.

“This isn’t the same, Dean,” Sam challenged, breaking the elder Winchester from his thoughts. “This isn’t a bum shoulder or a cold. You’re  _pregnant_ and hunting would put your kids in unnecessary danger.”

“I could hang back at the motel and do research,” Dean countered. “You and Cas could do the actual  _hunting_.”

“I fail to see how staying in a motel is any different than staying here,” Cas pointed out, that confused furrow of his brow and tilt of his head softening Dean’s anger slightly; no matter how upset he was, his angel was still adorable.

“It just  _is_ ,” Dean snapped. “ _Please?_ I can’t stay cooped here for the next four or five months,” he added in a pleading whisper. “You can ward the hell out of me and the room and make me check in every fucking hour if it makes you feel better. But I  _need_ to get the hell out of here for a little while.”

“You would need to be warded against anything we could possibly ward against, including angels,” Cas said. “Which poses a problem if we’re warding you from my own kind.”

“We’ve been getting two rooms ever since you two became a thing,” Sam pointed out, his tone going thoughtful and his eyes staring, unseeing, at a spot on the table. “What if we ward my room and he stays there whenever you or I can’t be with him? Then when you’re around to protect him, you two have your room which wouldn’t be warded against you.”

“I suppose that could be acceptable,” Cas said slowly as if he was hesitant to outright consent to the idea of taking a pregnant Dean on a hunt. “But as soon as you fail to contact me or Sam at the specified time or fail to answer if we check on you, I will return and I will not leave your side until we’re home again no matter how ‘fine’ you say you are,” he added, turning his full Angel of the Lord stare and voice on Dean. The hunter was almost surprised Cas hadn’t flashed the shadows of his wings against the walls for emphasis.

“I promise I will text or call both of you every hour on the hour and answer any text or call from either of you between check-ins and if I fail to do either of those things, I will happily accept my boyfriend’s constant presence at my side until such time that we return to the Batcave,” Dean said, lifting his right hand to eye level, palm facing forward in a solemn vow.

“Hilarious,” Sam deadpanned. “But I actually think that’s a good idea. You can’t hide the bump anymore and if anything finds you when we’re not around, who knows what they’d try to do with you or the eggs. Heavy protection and being overly paranoid probably isn’t a bad idea.”

“Yeah, I know,” Dean sighed, slumping slightly in his chair with defeat. “I get why you guys want to be so protective, I do. And just because I need to get out of here for a little while doesn’t mean I plan to recklessly put my kids’ lives in danger.”

“I know that is not your intention, Dean,” Cas said in a soothing tone, daring to reach out to clasp one of the hunter’s hands in his own, pleased when Dean didn’t bat him away again. “I understand your need to get out for a while and I want to help as I know it will help your mental health. I just want to make sure you’re safe if we agree to this.”

“I know, Cas,” Dean assured with a small smile and a gentle squeeze of his boyfriend’s hand. “I want to keep them safe, too. I’m just not used to being the one on the sidelines and I was mostly poking fun at needing to check in but if it makes you feel better to hear from me that often, then I’ll do it. I promise.”

Cas’s lips curled up in a small smile as he nodded. “I would appreciate knowing you are safe when I can’t be with you to protect you.”

“So are we agreed then?” Sam asked, breaking whatever  _moment_ was going on between his brother and the angel. “Because I can find us something easy that shouldn’t take more than a few days. Plenty of time for Dean to get away from here but not enough that we have to be worried about him.”

Cas nodded. “This plan is acceptable. We may go on a hunt as long as it is easy and nearby.”

“On it,” Sam said with determination as he hurried from the room in search of his laptop.

Of course, as soon as they’re actively  _looking_ for a hunt, there’s nothing. Nothing easy, anyway, and Sam made sure to pass information along to hunters near possible cases when it looked like something that should be taken care of quickly. It took a few more days for something to crop up that they all deemed safe enough for Dean to accompany them on.

“A salt and burn?” Dean asked incredulously when Sam showed them the laptop a few mornings later. “That’s, like, beginner level hunting. That’ll take you two days  _tops_ to solve. And it’s in  _Sterling_  – that’s  _still_ Kansas.”

“That’s the point,” Sam said with a huff. “It’s a simple case that leaves you unprotected as little as possible. And I didn’t  _choose_ where the hunt was. Though I  _may_ have purposely stayed within Kansas state lines when looking for clues,” he added with a sheepish smile and a hand scrubbing at the back of his neck. “Look, Sterling is about three hours from here which means we don’t have to stop overnight to get there which means one less place we have to heavily ward to keep you safe. That’s a day to get there and rest, one to three days max to solve the case, and another day to get back here. That’s up to  _four_ days out of the bunker, Dean. That’s plenty.”

Dean crossed his arms and wanted to argue that  _no,_ that wasn’t enough time but he reminded himself that it only felt like not enough because he still felt stir crazy at the moment. He’d feel differently after actually spending time away. And Sam did have a point about not needing to stop overnight which meant not needing to heavily ward an extra place. Even though he’d have Cas nearby for the night and probably wouldn’t  _need_ warding. Still, less work required.

“Okay,” he finally agreed. “Okay, sounds good. Let’s get packed and hit the road.”

Half an hour later, they were all packed – Cas had insisted on carrying Dean’s duffel to the Impala and hefting it into the trunk despite Dean’s assurances that it wasn’t too heavy though the hunter secretly loved his angel’s protectiveness. As Dean slid behind the wheel, he noticed an obvious lack of space between his abdomen and the steering wheel. Not enough to impeded his ability to drive but there was definitely less space there than there had been in previous weeks.

“What?” Sam asked from beside him (despite Cas being Dean's boyfriend, Sam still rode in front simply because he had such damn long legs and couldn't fit in the back) as Dean stared down toward his lap and moved his hand from his belly to the steering wheel.

“Nothing,” Dean dismissed with a wave of his hand before starting the engine. “Just noticed there’s less space between me and the steering wheel and knowing how big I’ll be by the time the triplets are born, I realized that there’ll be a point where I can’t drive Baby anymore,” he said as he steered the Impala down the road leading away from the bunker, a harsh edge entering his tone that barely covered the definite waver in Dean’s voice.

“Only until they’re born,” Sam assured him. “And then you’ll be small enough again to fit behind the wheel.”

Dean made a vague sound of agreement that might have been the word “yeah” but Sam couldn’t be certain. The elder hunter reached forward and turned on the radio to fill the silence. He turned the dial up and began tapping on the steering wheel and singing along to the music. They passed this way for almost an hour, song after song, before Dean quickly reached forward and cranked the volume all the way down, eyes slightly widened with confusion.

"Dude, you okay?" Sam asked.

"Dean?" Cas called, leaning forward in the backseat to peer around his boyfriend to see his face. "Are you alright?"

"I dunno," Dean admitted quietly, slowly turning the volume back up but keeping it low enough that they could still talk. "I thought I felt something but it's too early for that, right?" he asked, glancing at Sam for confirmation since Sam seemed to know everything.

"Why are you looking at me?" the younger Winchester asked, brow furrowed. "I don't know anything about pregnancy, let alone  _angel_ pregnancy."

"Well, look it up!" Dean snapped. "It felt like... bubbles popping. Kinda tickled. But it just felt really weird."

"Hang on," Sam sighed, pulling out his phone. After a minute of tapping at the screen, he shrugged. "I didn't find any  _medical_ answers but, on this forum, this lady said she felt her triplets at around the same time as you. I don't know if your triplets being angel eggs makes any difference but I guess it's possible."

"Huh," Dean said thoughtfully. "Felt weird."

He turned the music back up and began singing along again. After several more minutes, he turned it back down, grinning. He felt the bubbly sensation a few more times throughout the rest of the trip but didn't say anything. While it felt nice to share those moments with Cas and Sam, he couldn't be  _positive_ the feeling was the triplets, even if Sam said it might be possible. For now, he'd just enjoy the odd sensation and share the triplets' movements later when they could actually feel it.

When they arrived, Sam went into the office to get their rooms while Cas pulled their bags from the trunk. Dean tried to help but Cas gently stopped him just as he had when they'd been packing back at the bunker. This time, the overprotectiveness rubbed Dean the wrong way and he bit back a harsh retort. He knew his angel was just trying to help but the diminishing gap between his belly and the steering wheel made him remember that there are going to be less and less things he can do the bigger he got and he wanted to stay as independent as he could for as long as possible. Still, he figured carrying a few bags wasn't the end of the world so he let Cas do it.

"Okay," Sam announced as he crossed the parking lot, holding out one of the keys. "Two rooms. Here's yours. Let's get mine warded up before we get settled. It's still early enough that Cas and I can do some digging, too."

"I'm hungry," Dean announced as a counter to Sam's plan. "Can't we go eat first?"

Sam glanced at Cas and shrugged. "I suppose the room can wait. I'm kinda hungry, too. But," he added with a confused furrow of his brow as he turned to Dean, "you can't hide anymore. I mean, your belly is too big to conceal under clothes and is kinda obvious. Is it safe going out?"

Dean shrugged and looked down at his belly, smoothing a palm down the front of it. "I know it's not small enough to hide now but it could still pass as just  _fat_ , right? I mean, I just look like I like beer and food way too much."

Sam tilted his head in concentration as he eyed his brother's belly. "Yeah," he said slowly. "I suppose it isn't obviously a pregnancy bump. And you're a guy so no one would really believe you  _are_ pregnant anyway."

"Exactly. So let's go put our stuff away so we can go eat!"

Five minutes later, their bags were in their rooms and they'd put down the minimum warding to protect their rooms while they were away – salt lines on the doors and windows and devil's traps painted under rugs; Dean had been told to wait outside with Cas while Sam painted those – and they were back in the Impala. It didn't take long for Dean to find an acceptable diner but as soon as they were crossing the parking lot, all bravado the hunter had about going out vanished.

"Cas," he said, tugging at their entwined hands as he came to a full stop. "I don't think I can..."

Sam, noticing he wasn't being followed anymore, backtracked to stand near them. "What's up?"

"Dean is feeling self-conscious," Cas announced.

"What if someone figures out that I really am..." He made a vague gesture with his hand and lowered his voice. "Y'know... pregnant."

" _No one_ is going to mistake  _you_ for a woman and  _no one_ is going to assume a dude is pregnant," Sam assured him. "You'll be fine. Like you said back at the motel, you just look fat."

"You think I'm fat?" Dean squeaked, appalled when his lower lip started to wobble and tears pricked his eyes.

"You said the same thing back at the motel!" Sam cried in exasperation.

"Dean," Cas soothed, stepping between the brothers to block Dean's view of Sam and lowering his voice so only the elder hunter would hear. "You are not fat. You might appear so to humans who know nothing about the supernatural and would never allow themselves to believe something like this could happen but you are not fat. You are pregnant and still as handsome as you always were."

Dean sniffled and nodded, raising a hand to wipe at his eyes. "I know we want them to just assume I am fat. We don't want to draw attention," he agreed then released a cleansing breath. "Fuck, Sam says  _one thing –_ that I even basically already said – and I start crying like a little bitch."

"It's normal," Cas assured him, stroking a hand down his spine a few times to help further calm his hunter. "Don't feel bad for doing so."

"Are you okay now?" Sam asked hesitantly. "I'm sorry I made you cry. It's just-"

Dean waved a dismissive hand. "Don't worry about it, Sammy. I know what you meant and I  _did_ say the same thing. I don't know why it hit me the wrong way when you said it. I'm good, promise. Can we go eat now?"

Dean's little outburst forgotten, the three entered the diner and made their way to a booth in the back corner. Cas kept himself positioned between Dean and the patrons in other booths while Sam flanked the side nearest the counter. Despite the diner being mostly full this close to lunchtime, the few patrons that  _did_ look up at their entrance didn't spare them more than a glance before returning to their own meals. As they settled into their seats (Dean safely nestled between Cas and the window on one side of the booth and Sam across from them), Dean had calmed considerably, reassured that he didn't look too out of place.

It didn't take long for a waitress to pounce, cheerful and perky as she handed them menus and took their drink orders. While Sam ordered his usual iced tea, Dean's usual soda options didn't appeal to him. Instead, what did sound really good was the milk options listed above that, specifically chocolate. He gave the waitress his order, keeping his eyes on her instead of Sam, knowing his brother would be giving him an odd look.

"Milk?" Sam questioned as soon as the waitress walked away.

"Shut up," Dean mumbled. "It sounded really good."

Sam shrugged. "Just surprised is all. You always get sodas. Nothing wrong with milk."

They scanned their food options in silence and it didn't take long for Sam to decide on his usual salad. But, as with his drink options, Dean's usual cheeseburger didn't appeal to him and he didn't know what to choose. Every pass he made though the menu, he kept getting stuck on the salads but he didn't say anything, not wanting to see that confused, slightly smug look Sam gave him when he'd chosen a healthy drink option instead of his sodas.

When the waitress returned with their drinks and took their food orders, he ordered a burger since it was what he always ordered. Pleased that Sam didn't give him  _that look_ , he sipped at his milk. They idly discussed the case and theorized until the waitress brought out their food.

Dean watched as Sam set aside the lemon slice that they'd stuck to his glass and when he managed to tear his eyes from that, they got stuck on Sam's damn salad. Looking at his burger, his stomach churned with nausea and he pushed it away, making a face and slipping his hand down under the table to gently knead his belly.

"Dean?" Cas called quietly which, of course, got Sam's attention, too. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, fine, just... don't want a burger as much as I thought I did," Dean admitted.

"We could get the waitress and you can choose something else," Cas suggested. "You do need to eat  _something_."

Dean shrugged then pushed his plate to the outer edge of the table, needing it as far away from his nose as possible. "I guess." His eyes flicked to Sam's side of the table again but this time, Sam noticed before Dean could avert his gaze.

"You wanna try it?" he suggested, holding out his fork which he'd just used to spear a few pieces of lettuce and a tomato.

Dean hesitated, winkling his nose at the idea of eating a salad, but the insistent craving he had for it won out and he plucked the fork from Sam's hand. As soon as he'd pulled the empty fork back out of his mouth and chewed, the juice of the tomato filling his mouth, he fought back a moan and closed his eyes.

"Shit, why do I like this right now?" he whined, handing the fork back.

"Cravings," Sam said as if that explained everything. "Just go with them no matter how weird they may seem to you. You'll feel better and there's probably a reason why you want what you want."

"I want your lemon, too," Dean admitted sheepishly.

"My lemon?" Sam asked, glancing down to the slice of fruit he'd placed on a napkin before pushing it across the table. "Sure. I don't like them anyway."

Dean grinned and plucked the slice of fruit up, easily biting off the flesh of the fruit up to the rind.

"Isn't that sour?" Sam asked, eyes slightly wide.

"Yeah, but it tastes so good," Dean practically moaned.

"Everything okay, boys?" their waitress asked as she returned to the table, eyeing the untouched burger at the end. "Something wrong with the burger?"

"Um, I just... don't feel like burgers as much as I thought I did," Dean admitted sheepishly. "I'm sorry. I'll still pay for it, of course, but can I get another of those?" He asked, pointing at Sam's half eaten salad.

"Sure, hon," the waitress agreed with a pleasant smile, picking up the plate. "Do you want us to box this for you for later? You might want it then."

Dean quickly shook his head, the thought of touching that burger, even later this evening, making his stomach roll. "No, thank you."

She disappeared and a few minutes later, returned with another salad. Dean thanked her and apologized again for wasting a perfectly good burger but she assured him it wasn't the first time someone had changed their mind and it wouldn't be the last before disappearing back into the kitchen.

After lunch, they returned to the motel and the brothers warded Sam's room while Cas kept guard outside since they'd be warding against angels, too. Once they all agreed that Dean would be safe in that room, Sam changed into his Fed suit and he and Cas left to do a bit of digging while Dean settled himself in the bed with his phone, Sam's laptop in case they needed him to look up anything, and some romcom playing on the motel TV that he would never admit to the other two that he was enjoying.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, just like telling Sam about the eggs instead of doing the nursery like I'd planned for that chapter in the beginning, this got away from me a little bit – what I _intended_ to happen got pushed back for something else that popped into my head. But as I was writing, the diner scene just kinda _happened_ and I had to play with Dean's feelings and cravings a little bit. So, the real thing I sent them on a hunt for should be happening in the next chapter.


	8. Chapter 7

Dean didn’t know he was falling asleep until he was jarred awake by his phone playing it’s usual call tone, the familiar grungy guitar mixing terribly with the sounds of the newest movie playing on the television he never had the chance to turn off before sleep pulled him under. Groaning in annoyance, he stretched toward the nightstand and pulled his phone to the edge, tipping it to check the caller ID. _Cas_ (because Dean was too manly to change his boyfriend’s name to something like “baby” or “babe” in his phone and he didn’t dare label Cas as “angel” despite sometimes calling him that just in case his phone fell into the wrong hands) was displayed above a picture of the angel Dean had set as Cas’s contact picture.

“Hello?” he grumbled, blindly feeling his free hand through the blankets at his side for the remote, promptly shutting off the television once he had it.

Cas’s gravelly voice sounded full of concern when he responded. _“Dean? Are you alright? You were supposed to check in almost ten minutes ago.”_

Dean sighed and flopped back against the pillows. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep and miss check-in and he wasn’t fully awake and still grumpy but he bit back the urge to tell Cas to shove his check-ins where the sun don’t shine. “M’sorry,” he mumbled instead. “Fell asleep.”

 _“Oh. I’m sorry to have woken you.”_ The angel sounded sincerely sorry and a lot less worried now that he knew Dean was alright. _“You can go back to sleep if you’d like. I just wanted to know you were still safely behind the wards.”_

“I’m still here, Cas,” Dean assured his angel as he awkwardly pushed himself into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. At sixteen weeks, his belly wasn’t huge, despite the fact that he was about as big as a woman carrying one baby might be a month further along than he was. Still, it was more of a belly than Dean had ever possessed despite his penchant for greasy burgers, alcohol, and pie. It wasn’t too awkward to maneuver his body but his middle wasn’t soft like flab so he couldn’t bend in certain ways anymore. “Besides, I gotta pee anyway.”

 _“Alright. Sam and I are almost finished,”_ Cas continued. _“Would you like us to pick up dinner on our way back or would you like to go out again?”_

“M’too tired to go out, Cas,” Dean sighed, scrubbing his free hand down his face in an attempt to wake himself up a bit more. “Can you just bring something?”

 _“Of course,”_ Cas assured in a tone so pleasant that Dean almost felt bad for asking Cas to do anything for him though he wasn’t sure why he felt any kind of guilty; it was probably the triplets’ fault. _“Anything in particular you want?”_

“Not that I can think of. Just… no burgers, okay? And, um… can you find me something lemon?” he asked sheepishly, still not used to admitting to his body’s cravings.

When Cas agreed, Dean heard the smile in his voice but instead of making the hunter feel guilty or stupid for wanting what he wanted, the pure happiness in his boyfriend’s tone made him smile. And he realized that, despite the way they were going about it, he and Cas were gonna be _parents_. Dean being pregnant was a _good_ thing no matter how his changing body made him feel weak or different. Cas couldn’t be the one to carry their babies – it didn’t work in reverse unless Dean was an angel, too – but he _could_ take care of Dean and so far, the pregnant hunter hadn’t asked his partner for much help. Aside from setting up the nursery, Dean was still capable of moving and doing most everything on his own. He knew that would change the bigger he got, but he knew, for now, Cas was probably feeling a little left out or unwanted.

“Thanks, Cas,” he said quietly after the angel promised to find him something lemon flavored. “And… listen, I know I haven’t asked you for much so far, but… I do appreciate your support, you know?”

_“Of course, Dean. Why would you think I thought otherwise?”_

“Because…” The hunter sighed and shoved a hand through his hair in apprehension. Despite having been in a relationship with Cas for awhile by now and knowing that he could tell his angel anything, he still found it hard to have conversations about feelings. “Because I know I suck at admitting weakness and asking for help-”

 _“Dean,”_ the angel interrupted gently, _“you are not weak. You seem to think that being pregnant makes you weak but it does not. Yes, it means you can’t do certain things until the triplets are born but that is not weakness. Do you want to know something?”_

“What?” Dean squeaked, almost afraid of the answer.

 _“I think you’re incredibly strong for doing this for us,”_ Cas admitted, lowering his voice so that Dean knew only he could hear the praise. _“I know it wasn’t easy asking Sam and I to do the nursery when you couldn’t and I know your body is beginning to ache_ _more as it changes_ _and I know it’s hard for you to admit when you want something. But I am proud of you for asking for help whether it’s moving heavy things or just asking me to relieve your discomfort. And I’m happy to indulge your cravings and get you whatever you want. Please don’t feel like I’m not as much a participant in this pregnancy as you because I_ am _. I may not be the one carrying our children but I am no less happy in this. Do you understand?”_

Forgetting that Cas couldn’t actually see him, Dean nodded, unable to speak around the lump in his throat. When Cas gently called his name after not getting a verbal answer, an involuntary sob broke free and Dean coughed to try to cover it up. “Sorry. Y-Yeah, I get it. Thanks, Cas.”

 _“Don’t apologize,”_ Cas gently chided. _“You don’t have anything to be sorry for. But you’re welcome.”_ Dean heard a voice in the background before Cas sighed. _“I have to go. Sam and I need to finish_ _up here_ _. We’ll bring food on our way home.”_

“’Kay,” Dean said. “Love you.”

_“I love you, too.”_

Ending the call, Dean tossed his phone back onto the nightstand then pushed himself to his feet, using the nightstand as leverage and pushing one hand into the small of his back. He hadn’t been lying when he told Cas he had to pee and once he was upright, his bladder reminded him of just how much he needed to go. So instead of going back to sleep until the other two returned, he made his way into the bathroom. Just like any other time, he flicked on the light, shut the door, and stood in front of the toilet. But as he reached down to hold himself to aim, he realized how uncomfortable doing this had become recently, having to bend forward a bit just to reach around his belly which made lining up even more difficult.

“Son of a bitch,” he moaned in defeat as he turned around and awkwardly lowered himself to sit and groaned in relief as his bladder emptied. As he stood, tucked himself away again, and flushed and washed his hands, he decided that as far as Sam was concerned, Dean could still stand to pee; he didn’t need the teasing his little brother would probably give him when Sam found out Dean had to _sit_ like a girl.

Finished in the bathroom, he returned to the main room and eyed the bed then the dark television. He _could_ start another movie. Or nap until Sam and Cas returned with food. But he’d done both of those all afternoon already. If this is what it was going to be like until the case was over, Dean was going to go stir crazy. At least confined to the bunker, he had more space to be confined _to_. Maybe he could ask Cas to go for a walk with him later or tomorrow; then he could escape the same file walls and the angel would law Dean was safe.

Mind me up, he settled for messing around on Sam's laptop until he hears the familiar rumble of Baby’s engine returning – he'd let Sam and Cas borrow it to do their digging around since he wasn't going anywhere anyway. He exited what he'd been doing and shut the laptop down just as a key turned in the lock and Sam entered the room, Cas behind him and each carrying a bag from a nearby burger joint. Cas also carried a white paper bag with handles, fancier than their usual fare.

“Is that my laptop?” Sam asked with a crinkled nose. “Dude, if you looked up porn again and got another virus on it-“

“Relax, Sammy I was playing solitaire. Friggin’ _boring_ ,” Dean quickly dismissed, eyeing the logo on the bags. “Cas, I said no burgers,” he said, stomach rolling at the thought of a burger like the one from the diner that afternoon.

“We didn't get burgers,” Cas assured him as he pulled out a paper wrapped, burger shaped _something_. “I didn't know if you would want a salad like at lunch so I also got you a chicken sandwich in case you still wanted meat. And I didn't know if you'd want grilled or breaded so I got one of each.”

“And when Cas said you wanted more lemon, I convinced him straight lemons was a bad idea. He came up with a good idea so we stopped and got you…” Sam trailed off as he pulled some kind of plastic container out of the white bag which Cas had set beside the fast food bags.

“A lemon meringue _pie_?!” Dean gasped in awe before shoving himself up and into Cas’s space to kiss him squarely on the lips. “I fucking love you,” he said, grinning at his angel’s surprised expression.

“I love you, too,” Cas finally replied through a chuckle then snatched the box as Dean reached for it. “Pie _after_ dinner.”

“But the triplets want lemon pie,” Dean whined, hoping to use being pregnant to get what he wanted. By the unamused expression on his boyfriend's face, it wasn't working.

“ _After_ dinner,” Cas repeated. “Do you want a sandwich or are you still averse to meat?”

Dean thought about it for a moment as he watched Sam pull out his salad and Cas put the other salad and two chicken sandwiches on the table. Of course, the angel didn't get himself anything to eat. The hunter eyed the greens and the paper wrapped sandwiches, taking a deep breath of the scent of warm chicken; it didn't trigger the same urge to vomit the burger at lunch had. In fact, the smell of grilled chicken made his mouth water.

“Grilled one,” he decided, accepting the sandwich as Cas passed it to him.

As they ate, Sam and Castiel explained how the case was going and Dean gave them suggestions on how to proceed though he knew Sam knew what he was doing; he wanted to feel useful since they hadn’t needed him for any research so far and seemed like they’d be wrapping up in a day or two anyway. After finishing one chicken sandwich, Dean devoured the breaded one, too, pushing the salad toward Sam; it didn’t hold the same appeal as it did at lunch. While he ate his second sandwich, Cas unboxed and sliced the pie. Sam even had a piece.

Dean moaned happily, almost obscenely, as he finished his piece and leaned back in his chair, his hands unconsciously finding their way to his lower belly.

“Dude,” Sam huffed, smiling at how happy Dean seemed despite the almost filthy sounds his older brother made. “What’s with you and lemons lately?”

Dean shrugged. “Dunno, Sammy. They just sound really good. You said go with the cravings, so…”

“I did and I’m not saying you shouldn’t,” Sam hastily added. “Just amused is all. You’re not usually a fruit person.”

Dean hummed in agreement, shifting in his seat. “Cas, can we go for a walk? I’m sick of being stuck in this room and the only thing I got to look forward to is _our_ room.”

“Of course, Dean,” the angel agreed, rising and offering Dean a hand up though the hunter batted his hand away and levered himself up out of the chair. “Sam, would you care to join us?”

Sam shrugged. “Why not? Not often Dean willingly exercises either, fighting and running on hunts aside.”

“Shut up, bitch,” Dean grumbled, plopping onto the edge of the bed and awkwardly shifting himself forward between his knees to grasp for his boots and pulling them on. Once he was ready, he stood. “Let’s go.”

They exited the room, Sam locking up behind them. Their route stayed in the motel’s parking lot and surrounding land and didn’t last long before Dean tired out and they decided to head back inside. They bid each other goodnight and Sam slipped into his own room while Dean and Cas went into their own.

This time, Dean accepted Cas’s help sitting down and removing his boots then his jeans and button up, leaving him in his t-shirt and boxers. He wiggled himself back onto the bed and settled on his side while Cas undressed, listening to the familiar slide of a leather belt through the loops of Cas’s slacks then the rustle of fabric as layers were shed. He’d almost drifted off to sleep when the opposite side of the bed dipped and one of Cas’s hands found their way to his belly, rubbing wide circles.

Dean hummed appreciatively but blindly reached down to nudge his boyfriend’s hand toward his lower abdomen. Cas got the hint and after a few circles, began kneading the flesh there, earning a pleased groan from the hunter.

“Are you in pain?” Cas asked, barely above a whisper.

“No, just… tight, I guess,” Dean admitted in the same low tones, sounding unsure how to explain how he felt. “Not used to having this much weight on me.”

Cas hummed in understanding and Dean felt him shift around a little bit, his hand never leaving Dean’s belly. Once he was settled again, he resumed his circles.

Dean fell asleep full and warm and relaxed with Castiel rubbing his belly.

~~~

When Dean awoke the next morning, he was cuddled against Castiel’s chest, his belly cradled between them. One of Cas’s arms was around him, the other hand resting on his hip, thumb rubbing back and forth. Dean sighed and nuzzled his face into the angel’s neck.

“Good morning, Dean,” Cas murmured, pressing a kiss to the hunter’s temple.

“Not awake,” Dean grumbled, voice sleep roughened.

“The triplets are,” Cas said cryptically.

Dean’s eyes popped open and immediately locked onto the angel’s blue ones. “Can you feel them?” he asked, eyeing where Cas’s hand rested on his hip.

“No. I can’t feel their movements clearly from the outside, remember? Encased in their eggs, they won’t be able to kick you or push outward like human babies. But I can sense them,” Cas explained. “They have been awake for some time.”

Dean made a thoughtful sound and watched as Cas’s hand began to slowly pass back and forth across his belly. Then the angel’s hand slipped under Dean’s t-shirt and began massaging the lower curve of his belly. The skin-to-skin contact sent pleasant shivers down Dean’s spine and he arched up into the touch, his cock twitching in interest. Despite the intensity with which is body demanded they take this in a certain direction, Dean still possessed enough mental faculties to note that Cas’s touch, while always pleasurable, had never quite stimulated him so easily with so little before. It was like the angel’s hand was a live wire, each brush of his fingertips sending electric currents through Dean’s body.

“Shit, Cas,” he breathed, unconsciously rocking his hips up, seeking a friction that wasn’t there.

Cas chuckled, understanding his boyfriend’s reactions, and trailed his hand down from Dean’s belly to cup his cock through his boxers. Wordlessly, he began to stroke Dean through the material, long, slow passes up and down.

“Cas,” Dean moaned breathlessly, pushing up against the angel’s palm. “Shit, I need you so fucking much.”

“Tell me what you want, Dean,” Cas commanded, just shy of his Angel of the Lord voice, the one that used to command armies and strike fear into humans and other supernatural beings. Now, that voice only ever turned Dean on and this moment was no different.

The hunter moaned and rocked up harder into the angel’s palm. “Fucking _touch_ me,” he growled.

“I am touching you, Dean,” Cas reminded, tilting his head in the way he often did when confused though instead of the confused squint of his eyes, the bastard was smirking. The movement of his hand never slowed or faltered.

“Pull off my boxers and _touch me_ ,” Dean commanded.

Cas made a sound of approval and removed his hand long enough to pull Dean’s boxers down in one swift motion, carelessly tossing them across the room. Instead of returning his hand to Dean’s cock, he leaned down and teased at the head with his tongue.

“Wh-Wha’-?”

“We do not have lubricant,” Cas explained, sitting upright to meet Dean’s eyes. “I do not want to cause discomfort stroking you dryly.”

Dean only managed to nod once then watched as Cas leaned back down to tease Dean’s cock with his tongue and lips before finally taking it into his mouth. He licked and swirled his tongue around it as he bobbed his head and Dean had to consciously think about keeping still so he didn’t choke his boyfriend – not that Cas need to breathe.

When Cas deemed Dean wet enough, he pulled off with an obscene pop then replaced his hand around Dean’s cock, grip firm but not too tight. Dean moaned as Cas’s hand pumped up and down from head to base several times. He rocked his ups up to meet each swipe of the angel’s hand, tipping his head back and moaning.

“Shit, Cas, yeah,” he panted. “Tighten… Little tighter.”

Cas complied, squeezing his fist a little tighter but being careful not to make his grip painful. He quickened his strokes, adding a twist to his wrist on the downstroke which caused Dean’s hips to jerk up harder into his fist. The angel smirked, proud that he could make his hunter come undone. When they’d first explored intercourse, he hadn’t been very good at it; now, it pleased him to make Dean feel good.

“Cas,” Dean panted. “Cas, I’m so close, angel…”

“Come, Dean,” Cas purred, stroking his free hand up and down one of Dean’s inner thighs, making the hunter’s legs tremble.

As if that permission was all he needed, Dean tensed, arched his back as he pushed his cock into the angel’s fist, and groaned through his release, come spilling down over Cas’s hand and onto Dean’s lower belly and the sheets below him.

~~~

After, Dean was so relaxed that he’d almost fallen back asleep. That is, until his phone started blaring from the nightstand. With a groan, he rolled away enough to pick it up, noticing Cas slip out of bed and toward the bathroom as he swiped his thumb across the screen to answer.

“Morning, Sammy.”

 _“Good morning,”_ Sam said pleasantly. _“Listen, I’m gonna go grab breakfast. What are you in the mood for?”_

“Is this gonna be a new thing every time you get food? Can’t you just bring me what I always get?” Dean grumbled.

 _“_ _Well, last night, I would have brought you a burger and we all know how well that would have turned out,”_ Sam explained. _“So I thought this was safer.”_

Dean hated to admit it but Sam probably had a point. He wasn’t used to being so picky with his food. Other than _no rabbit food_ and _bring me pie,_ he usually didn’t have many requests, making it easy for Sam to pick what Dean would choose at any given restaurant – usually a burger of some kind for anything but breakfast which varied by restaurant.

“Are you just going to the diner again?” he finally asked.

 _“Yeah, unless you want something I’d have to get from somewhere else,”_ Sam replied. _“Which is totally cool, by the way!”_ he hastily added.

“Nah, don’t do that. Diner is good,” Dean argued. “I’m feeling chocolate this morning so their pancakes works. Don’t go outta your way for me.”

_“Got it. Be back in twenty.”_

“Cool. Later, bitch.”

 _“_ _Bye, jerk,”_ Sam laughed before the call disconnected.

As Dean was replacing his phone on the nightstand, he noticed Cas waiting at the foot of the bed with a wet washcloth. Grimacing, Dean looked down toward his belly though he couldn’t really _see_ so much as _feel_ the come sticking to his skin.

“Thanks,” he said as the angel passed him the cloth, quickly wiping it away.

“You’re welcome. Based on your half of the conversation, I assume Sam went to get breakfast?” Cas asked, returning the towel to the bathroom.

“Yeah,” Dean said with a grin as the familiar purr of Baby’s engine roared to life in the parking lot.

“Then we have time to dress and make ourselves presentable before he returns.”

It didn’t take long to dress and pick up Dean’s clothes from the night before which they shoved into his duffel. While waiting for Sam, he took the time to gather everything he’d need to take over to Sam’s room once the other two left and he’d be stuck behind all the warding again. This didn’t take very long either and with a heavy sigh, the hunter peered out the window.

“Cas, can we go for another walk? Once we’re done with breakfast and you two leave, I’ll be stuck inside again,” he grouched.

“Of course, Dean,” Cas assured, brow furrowed with worry. “I’m sorry you feel like we’re trapping you like you were at home. The point of getting you out of the bunker was a change of scenery and now we’ve been treating you the same.”

“No, I get it, Cas,” Dean quickly assured him, pressing close to the angel – careful not to squish his belly between them too harshly – and winding his arms around Cas’s neck. “Cas, I understand why you want to protect me, protect the kids. I’d feel protective of you, too, if you were in my place. I know I’m not stuck inside because you and Sam wanna be asshats. I’m inside for protection and because people would freak at the sight of a pregnant dude.”

“I wish you had the freedom any normal pregnant woman could have,” Cas said, resting his hands on Dean’s hips.

“So I’m a woman now?” Dean teased with a smirk, smile widening when his joke managed to get Cas to crack a smile. He leaned forward to place a quick kiss to his angel’s lips. “I get it, Cas. I’m not a civilian and I’m not female. I’d attracted all kinds of attention outside. But knowing this is for both my safety and the safety of our kids doesn’t stop me from getting a little stir crazy.”

“Maybe Sam could go alone today so I can protect you so you could go out. We couldn’t go to overly crowded places because, you’re right, you would attract attention being male and appearing pregnant but I’m sure we could do _something_ ,” Cas suggested.

“We only have the one car and you still don’t have your wings,” Dean pointed out. “Either you and I or Sam would have to shuttle the other back and forth around Sammy’s digging all day. You two go,” he urged, giving his boyfriend a gentle push. “I can last a day or two more. Maybe, when this is all over, before we go back to the bunker, we spend a day or two here doing fun things in not-so-crowded places where I won’t get too many stares, okay?”

“If you’re sure,” Cas said slowly.

“I’m good, Cas. Really,” Dean promised.

After Sam returned and they ate, they gathered anything Dean might need and got the pregnant hunter settled into Sam’s warded motel room before Sam and Cas left for the day, Dean promising to check in every hour just like the day before. And just like the day before, Dean spent his day watching cheesy movies on TV and browsing on Sam’s laptop between napping or just lazing around in bed, exploring the swell of his belly and hoping to feel the bubbly sensation that meant the triplets were moving. He still hadn’t discovered any pattern to it and it had only happened a couple of times since the trip from Lebanon when he’d first felt it but he eagerly looked forward to feeling it again.

Somewhere around noon, his stomach growled loudly and once he realized how hungry he was, he couldn’t focus on anything else. He didn’t want to make Cas or Sam leave their case to bring him food so when Cas texted him for his hourly check in, Dean made sure to let the angel know he was safe but didn’t mention that he was hungry.

As he tossed his phone onto the bed with a weary sigh, he tipped his head back against the headboard. Then he remembered the pie! The fucking amazing lemon pie – and the thought of the pie made Dean realize how much he was craving lemon again – his wonderful boyfriend bought him the night before. As quickly as his belly would allow, Dean extricated himself from the bed and crossed to the fridge in the kitchenette along one wall. His anticipatory grin faded when he opened the fridge to find nothing but a box of baking soda likely put there by the motel cleaning staff in an attempt to keep the fridge fresh-smelling.

“Son of a bitch,” Dean groaned when he remembered that Sam had put the pie in the fridge in Dean and Cas’s room while Dean had been fighting with his boots before their walk the previous night. “In case you want some later,” Sam had said but Dean had been so exhausted after their walk that he’d fallen asleep and slept through the night.

And between the three of them, _no one_ had remembered to bring it from their room to Sam’s.

“Son of a _bitch_ ,” Dean snarled, biting back a frustrated whine – because Dean Winchester did not _whine –_ as he slumped against he fridge, crossing his arms and decidedly _not_ pouting.

The thing about cravings, though, was that once a craving hit, it was almost impossible to not crave whatever food started the craving. No matter how much Dean tried to convince himself that he didn’t want that pie and could wait for Sam and Cas to get back so they could go get lunch, he couldn’t stop thinking about that lemon-y goodness in the other room. But that would mean calling Sam or Cas to come get it or protect him while _he_ got it.

“Fuck it,” he growled, marching toward the door. “It’s right the fuck next door! I don’t need Cas to drive all the way back out here so I can go into the other room for _one minute_.”

Determined to spend as little time outside the warding as possible – though he was ninety-nine percent sure there was no one, supernatural or otherwise, _this_ determined to get their hands on on his kids – he hurried out of Sam’s room and back into his own, leaving the door open since he’d only be there for a second. He crossed to the fridge, pulled it open, and practically moaned at the pie box sitting front and center.

“Well, well, well,” an unfamiliar voice purred from the doorway just as Dean was straightening up again, lemony treasure in hand. “What have we got here?”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any typos or mistakes, it’s late and I can’t be bothered to properly edit. I don’t make too many mistakes as I write anyway – not saying never ‘cause I _have_ seen mistakes in other things I’ve posted. Anyway, if there’s anything big, let me know and I’ll fix it tomorrow.
> 
> And, as it seems to happen to me a lot, this chapter didn't come out as I planned and instead of more of the reason I sent them on a hunt happening, I barely scratched the surface with our mystery visitor at the end there. So the reason I sent them on a hunt becomes clear _next_ chapter instead.
> 
> Also, OP, I have not forgotten your lovely comment about Dean and his belly and lemons - I do have plans to use that somewhere in the future. ;)


	9. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't normally put in trigger warnings because I don't usually write anything that needs one and if you're a Supernatural fan enough to read fan fiction, I would assume you can handle show-level violence. But to avoid anyone coming at me for no warnings for even the minor bit of violence I wrote, I will put a summary of the things depicted in this chapter at the end. I promise the pregnancy fluff will return. :)

* * *

Dean tensed at the voice behind him, hunters’ instincts and the body’s natural fight or flight response prepping him to react. He slowly placed the pie box on the counter and turned to face the intruder who, upon turning around, Dean noted was a man about his height and who was blocking Dean’s only exit from this room. Unless he wanted to try to squeeze his belly out the bathroom window but he had a feeling whoever this guy was would be faster.

“Who are you?” he growled, mentally calculating his odds of making it to the gun under his pillow before the other man could get to him. And the gun would only work if he were _human_ but Dean couldn’t exactly test him.

“Cael,” the man said, lifting his chin and looking down his nose at Dean. “And you are Dean Winchester. My, my, the rumors I’ve been hearing among the angels were true; there _is_ a nephilim in existence. And not just one but _three_. I can sense their grace-soul abominations inside you and…” He _tsk_ ed a few times, twisting his mouth into a disappointed moue. “Castiel was always a rebel but _this?_ He knows better.”

Dean felt a flare of anger and protectiveness wash over him at hearing the winged dick in front of him calling his kids “abominations” but he tamped it down, knowing he needed to be level-headed or risk angering Cael enough to put his children in danger. “What do you want?” he snarled instead, trying to move this along.

Cael hummed thoughtfully but Dean got the feeling it was just for show; if the angels had sent one after him, they knew what they wanted with him and his kids – not that they were going to get it. “I should kill you and the abominations, but,” he said, drawing out the last word, “I think the angels could benefit from _so much power_.”

“Yeah, well, the angels ain’t getting their hands on my kids,” Dean growled, adopting a defensive stance though he _really_ hoped he wouldn’t have to try to fight with his belly throwing him off.

“Oh? And how do you plan to stop me, Dean?” Cael taunted, grinning like he’d already won. “You’re too fat to fight me and do you really want to risk your precious kids’ lives?”

“If you want me for their power, you won’t hurt me or them or you’d have already tried attacking me,” Dean countered. “But I’m not going to willingly go with you.”

“We’ve planned for that,” Cael said just as two more angels in male vessels appeared in the room, closer to Dean than the hunter would like. “And there’s no reason we can’t rough _you_ up a little bit as long as no harm comes to the abominations.”

Dean only managed a few backward steps away from the two angels before they’d grabbed his arms with vice grips that he couldn’t get out of no matter how hard he struggled. One of them reached two fingers to his forehead and he tipped his head back, trying to get away from the touch.

“Let go of me, you winged assholes!” he snarled.

Held fast, he could struggle all he wanted but he couldn’t get away and the one attempting to touch him managed to do just that and suddenly his world went dark.

~~~

Castiel furrowed his brow as he lowered his phone from his ear and ending the call only to redial his boyfriend’s number a third time. Again, it rang and rang until voicemail picked it up.

“Still no answer?” Sam asked where he was leaning against the Impala’s trunk.

They’d finished their digging and knew exactly who their ghost was and planned to deal with the bones that night when they could sneak into the cemetery under the cover of darkness. For now, they were just trying to check in with Dean and see what he wanted for lunch so they could bring it back to the motel.

Except Dean wasn’t answering.

“No,” Castiel growled, ending the call and shoving his phone back into his coat pocket.

“Maybe he’s just asleep,” Sam suggested. “Y’know, like what happened last night.”

“If he were asleep, his phone should have woken him by now,” Castiel argued, rounding the Impala to the passenger side. “We need to go, now. I need to see for myself if he’s alright.”

Sam nodded and pushed himself off the trunk and moved around to the driver’s side. Once they were in, he backed out and drove toward the motel. Beside him, the angel was practically radiating worry. Sam pushed the speed limits a little bit but didn’t go fast enough to endanger them or anyone around them and certainly not enough to gain the attention of any patrolling officers that may be out.

“I’m sure he’s fine, Cas,” he said in an attempt to soothe the angel.

“I hope you’re right,” Castiel sighed. “I just… It’s like an instinct to want to protect Dean when he’s pregnant with my eggs and the longer he is out of my sight without knowing if he’s alright, the more I worry.”

“I think I get it,” Sam agreed. “Like animal parents and their young.”

Castiel glared at him.

“I didn’t mean you’re an animal, Cas,” Sam hurried to explain. “But the instinct you’re describing sounds more like _that_ than just your usual need to protect us.”

Castiel hummed in vague agreement but didn’t feel like pursuing that line of thinking.

They rode in silence and as the motel came into view, the angel stiffened in his seat and was scrambling out of the car the moment Sam put it in park.

“Dean!” he called, hurrying into their open room, his blade falling into his palm. “Dean?!”

Sam followed him in, his gun raised as they scanned the room. He made his way through to the bathroom but when he aimed his gun into the darkened room, it was empty and untouched. The rest of the room looked normal, too; the bed was slightly messy but that wasn’t surprising since Dean and Cas had slept in it the night before.

“The door is open but it doesn’t look like there was a fight and the bathroom’s clear,” he announced.

“His pie is on the counter,” Castiel added. “You put it away last night and we didn’t touch it this morning.”

Sam hurried from the room and quickly unlocked his own room, stepping in with his gun raised. His room looked similar to the other. The bed was rumpled – he knew he’d made it that morning but guessed Dean had probably been resting in their absence – and his laptop was open on the table. A glance at it just showed his desktop; Dean had probably used it to entertain himself but hadn’t fully shut it down after he was done.

“His phone is still here,” Castiel called from the doorway. He couldn’t enter the room but he could still scan it from there.

Sam quickly crossed to the bed to pick up Dean’s phone and scanned through it. “The only calls are from you and me. I don’t think anyone lured him away,” he said thoughtfully. “His pie was on the counter in your room, right? And your last check in was around noon and he answered, right? I bet he got hungry and decided to go next door to get his pie, probably assuming he’d be outside the warding for only a couple minutes.”

“Why wouldn’t he just tell me he wanted it?” Castiel snarled.

“What would you have done if he’d said he was hungry and wanted something just feet away?” Sam countered. “You’d have driven back here to help him. I know my brother and you and I _both_ know how he’s been having trouble dealing with being pregnant changing things for him. He probably didn’t want to bother you for something he could easily get himself.”

“But he left the warding meant to keep him and our children _safe_ ,” the angel growled.

“Yeah, and he probably thought he’d be outside them for two minutes, tops. Think about it, have we even seen anyone strange around?” When Castiel huffed but shook his head, Sam continued. “See? I’m betting he didn’t think anyone was after him or the triplets and thought he’d be fine.”

Castiel sighed heavily, realizing Sam was right; he couldn’t change why or what Dean had done now. “We need to find him,” he said instead.

“Well, who would want to take him?” Sam asked, trying to narrow down who they should look for.

“The angels,” Castiel said without hesitation. “If they knew of the triplets’ existence, they’d either want to kill them or use their pwoers. And if the demons have realized Dean is pregnant with half-angel babies, they’d likely want the power.”

“Okay, so angels or demons,” Sam agreed with a nod. “They’re usually the prime suspects when something powerful comes into play anyway. Have you been checking into Angel Radio lately?”

“No,” Castiel admitted with slumped shoulders. “I have no desire to see many of my brothers and sisters and they don’t want me so I haven’t bothered to listen to what they’re up to. I should have; if I had, we might have anticipated this.”

“Hindisght’s a bitch, Cas, but you can’t beat yourself up over should haves,” Sam said with a reassuring smile. “It happened how it happened and we just gotta deal with it. But maybe you can tap into Angel Radio now and see if anyone’s talking about Dean,” he suggested.

“I suppose I can try,” Castiel agreed on a sigh then closed his eyes and focused. His brow furrowed in confusion as he spoke aloud, relaying to Sam what he was hearing. “Several angels are talking about their being angel offspring in existence. They know the trijplets have been created. They… They don’t seem to be able to sense that there are more than one which is understandable; unless an angel is in close proximity to Dean, it is hard to distinguish the three from one another.”

“Do any of them seem to know where they are?” Sam asked.

Castiel shook his head as he opened his eyes with a sigh. “No. They seem to be sepculating. If an angel has Dean, they are keeping it quiet.”

“Probably a good idea,” Sam greed. “If they announce they’ve got the person carrying an angel baby – or in Dean’s case, three – they’d probably have every angel alive after them.”

Castiel nodded. “A half angel, half human child is powerful, sometimes more powerful than even a high-ranking full angel.”

“And if they get their hands on that child before it’s born, they can train its powers as it grows for whatever they want,” Sam agreed with a heavy sigh.

“I have not heard any prayers from Dean either,” Castiel added. “Either he is behind angel warding that prevents him from being able to contact me or he’s been rendered incapable of speech somehow.”

“If angels have him, I don’t think they’d have angel warding up,” Sam countered. “But if they want the triplets’ powers, they _can’t_ hurt Dean. The triplets are nowhere near developed enough to survive if Dean dies.”

Castiel nodded and his grip tightened on his angel blade. “We still need to find him quickly.”

~~~

When Dean came to, it was gradual, like waking up in the morning. As he fluttered his eyes open, the first thing he became aware of was a cloth stuffed into his mouth and tied in place to keep him from spitting it out. Any attempt to lift either hand to remove it made it clear his wrists were tied to the arms of the chair he was tied to, thick ropes tied around his chest above where his belly sloped forward holding him to the hard back. He couldn’t see past his belly but in trying to move his feet, he realized his ankles were tied to the legs of the chair, too.

Realizing he was stuck and had no way to pray to his boyfriend for rescue, Dean scanned the room he was in, mentally groaning when he realized he was probably in an abandoned warehouse – why was it always creepy abandoned warehouses? But other than the chair he was tied to and a table along a far wall lined with things Dean didn’t want to think of their uses for, the room was empty.

_Fan-fucking-tastic_ , he mentally snarled. If he hadn’t been so stupid and so focused on his damn _pie_ , he’d be safe in Sam’s warded motel room right now. He should have just told Cas at the last check-in that he was hungry and sucked it up and asked for the pie in the other room. It was around lunchtime anyway, Sam was probably hungry and needing a break, too. And Dean hated to admit it, but he knew they’d willingly bring him food if he asked. But no, Dean had let his pride get in the way and had acted stupidly and now he was God knows where with no way to alert Castiel.

“Ah, you’re awake,” Cael cooed from the doorway to the room Dean was being held in, sauntering in when Dean raised his eyes to glare at him. “Sorry about the gag,” he added in a tone that made it clear he wasn’t sorry at all. “Couldn’t risk you praying to your boyfriend for help. Not that you know where you are anyway but still, we aren’t taking any chances.”

Dean only glared at the angel, wishing he could set the bastard on fire with just his eyes

“Now, let’s see how much power they have,” Cael said, slipping an angel blade into his hand as he crossed to Dean.

The hunter tried to twist and wiggle himself as much as he could, fighting his restraints, but he was securely bound and unable to move away as Cael trailed the blade down his cheek. He hissed behind his gag at the sting of a fresh cut and felt blood trickling down his cheek.

Cael hummed thoughtfully as he watched the cut bleed. “Nothing. I wonder if they’re aware enough to conserve their budding grace. Perhaps they’ll only act if your life is in danger.”

Dean’s eyes widened fearfully at what that might mean and watched as Cael shoved the ropes on one of Dean’s wrists upward enough to expose the flesh there. With a quick jerk of the blade, Cael sliced through Dean’s wrist, blood immediately welling up and pouring over his wrist and the arm of the chair, down onto the floor. Dean screamed against the gag and his chest tightened with fear. He was gonna die! An angel had tied him up and slit his fucking wrist and now he was gonna die!

“Don’t worry,” Cael sighed with a roll of his eyes. “If they can’t save you, I will heal it. We don’t want _them_ to die which means _you_ can’t.”

Dean forced himself to calm a little at the reminder though it still scared the shit out of him to watch his wrist bleeding so heavily. Of course he wouldn’t die; Cael had said the angels wanted his kids and the kids needed Dean alive to grow. But as he watched, the gash across his wrist slowly knit itself back together, faint grace blue light behind the wound. It wasn’t as seamless and painless as when Castiel healed him but he assumed that was because the triplets were still growing and didn’t have as much practice or power as Castiel.

“Amazing,” Cael breathed. “They seem to only act when their mother’s life is in danger.”

Dean glared at the angel for calling him “mother” but couldn’t protest with the gag in his mouth.

“I wonder if they heal any faster closer to where they are,” Cael said thoughtfully before using the angel blade to slice Dean’s shirt open to bare his belly. Then he pressed the tip of the blade into the top of Dean’s belly and dragged it down over the swell to the bottom, leaving a bright red gash.

As Dean tipped his head back and panted through his nose through the stinging pain of the cut, he felt the famililar warmth of grace flare up in the wound as it knit itself back together.

“Fascinating,” Cael said. “It seems the closer to their incubation point I go, the quicker they heal you.”

Dean moaned faintly through the gag, both in discomfort and a fuilte plea to get Cael to stop. His body throbbed with pain that wasn’t just from the cuts Cael inflicted in places the triplets hadn’t felt necessary to heal. Sitting for what was probably hours in such a hard chair was making various parts of his body ache. His ass was numb by now, tailbone aching, and his hips, which already ached now and then from the strain of the extra weight of the triplets, throbbed. His shoulders hurt from being pressed back into the chair by the rope around his chest and his back hurt from being forced upright and still for so long.

“I wonder what else they can do from in there…”

Dean lifted his head and watched Cael move away to set the blade back on the table then furrowed his brow in confusion when the angel returned empty handed. He watched with aprehension as the angel knelt in front of the chair and lifted his palms toward Dean’s belly. The hunter wiggled desperately in the chair, the thought of the angel touching his belly making him nauseous.

“Oh, calm down,” Cael snapped, glaring up at Dean. “I’m actually not going to cause you any harm this time. I merely want to see if I can communicate with them through their grace or if the eggs they grow in prevents that.”

This actually made Dean more _curious_ than frightened. He knew Castiel could sense their kids inside Dean and he knew that if Castiel touched him, he could sense them more clearly. But he didn’t know if Cas had ever tried _talking_ to the eggs. He wondered if the triplets could hear them from in there like human babies.

Curious despite the urge to stay on high alert with his captor so close, Dean let himself relax and watched warily as Cael slowly slid his palms across Dean’s belly and tamped down the urge to vomit at the unfamilar touch. But true to his word, Cael’s touch was gentle and he didn’t try to harm Dean or the eggs. He simply closed his eyes and sat quietly for several seconds. When he finally opened his eyes, he sighed and stood.

“No,” he announced. “I can feel them but I can’t communicate at all.”

Dean felt a small twinge of disappointement mix with the relief of Cael taking his hands away from his belly – so Cas probably couldn’t communicate with their triplets through their shared grace. He wasn’t sure why it uspet him so much though. They’d be able to talk to the babies once they were born and as they grew up; there’d be no barrier preventing them from talking. But for now, Cas couldn’t experience much of the pregnancy like a human father could because of the nature of the eggs and the inability to communicate with their kids was just another thing Cas couldn’t share in.

Not that Dean could really communicate with them either. Hell, he couldn’t even _feel_ them yet; he might not ever truly feel them like Cas had explained. He might be able to feel the eggs moving as the triplets moved but he wouldn’t feel kicks or a hand pressing out against his belly.

“They’re restless,” Cael continued, oblivious to Dean’s inner turmoil. “I think they’ve had enough practice for now. Don’t want to wear them out too soon. And, I suppose that _you’ll_ need some kind of food unless I want to starve you to death. Seeing as I need _you_ to help _them_ survive, I should go find you something to eat.”

And with that, the angel marched from the room with an attitude akin to a child skulking off to go complete a chore.

~~~

Cas paced the lenth of his and Dean’s room while Sam sat the table with his laptop which he’d brought over from his own room. The angel hadn’t heard any prayers from his boyfriend in the couple hours since the last time Dean had checked in so Sam was trying to search for any evidence of angelic presence in the town, hoping _something_ could point them to had taken Dean.

“Hey, Cas?” he called, waiting until the angel stopped pacing and his attention was on Sam before continuing. “Remember a few years ago when Sammandriel was captured and him being tortured released all that power? You know, like the burning bush?”

Castiel nodded. “Yes, I remember. Naomi made me kill him…”

“I know, but that’s not why I bring it up,” Sam quickly explained. “Is it possible that if Dean’s being tortured, he could cause the same kinds of reactions nearby?”

Castiel tilted his head in thought but ultimately shrugged. “I do not know. Offspring like ours have not existed in centuries. Their powers are a mystery to even myself. Why? Have you found something unusual?”

Sam shook his head with a defeated sigh. “No. I was just hoping there might be _something_ to look out for… Whoever took Dean is being really careful about hiding him.”

Castiel hummed in agreement then went back to his pacing while Sam stared at his laptop screen as if willing some kind of clue to appear. After several minutes of silence, he sat up straight again, another idea coming to him.

“You can sense the triplets, right?” he asked hopefully.

“Yes,” Castiel said, pausing in his pacing to face the younger Winchester again. “But I have to be in close proximity to Dean to do so. Inside their eggs and inside him, their grace doesn’t emit a powerful enough signature for me to sense in a wider radius like other angels.”

“Oh.” Sam slumped back in his seat. “I was hoping we could use your connection to your kids to find Dean.”

“Perhaps instead of trying to find signs that point us to some _one_ , we should search for places that might be useful at holding and possibly torturing someone,” Castiel suggested.

“Yeah,” Sam said slowly as he began typing again. “If we’re right and they want the triplets’ power somehow, they’d need somewhere isolated to hold Dean, somewhere that wouldn’t attract too much attention. Got it!” he announced, spinning the laptop around to show Castiel a map of Sterling. “There’s an abandoned warehouse on the other side of town. That’s usually where our bad guys take people they want to hold onto for awhile.”

“Would they really be stupid enough to hold Dean so close to where they took him where we could possibly find him?” Cas questioned.

Sam shrugged. “Maybe they thought we’d assume they wouln’t be and look furhter away for Dean instead of right under our noses. Worth a shot, right? If he’s not there, we widen our search.”

Castiel nodded and marched toward the door, leaving Sam to scramble to shut down his laptop, grab the Impala’s keys, and follow. “Let’s go.”

~~~

Despite the near full body throbbing – or maybe the throbbing helped – the bone deep exhaustion one can only expereince if one has been tortured for several hours in a row dragged Dean into a light, fitful slumber. He only woke again when he heard a crash coming from somewhere in the warehouse. Somehwere near the room he was being held in. Then, through the door leading out of the room, he could make out the faint edges of grace blue light and his heart beat faster in his chest with anticipation.

Either his captors have turned on one another or someone’s here to rescue him!

“Dean!”

His whole body tensed and he tugged hard where his wrists were bound to the chair at the sound of that voice, desperate to free his hands so he could rip out the gag and call out to his boyfriend, to tell Cas that he’s _here,_ that he can hear him! When Cas called his name again, he yelled out around the gag as loud as he could manage and wiggled hard in the chair, trying to free himself. He did manage to wiobble the chair a bit, the wooden legs thumping against the concrete floor. It must have made enough noise though because not a minute later, the view into the other room was blocked by a familiar suit and trench coat.

Relief flooded him and he blamed pregnancy hormones for the tears that filled his eyes, blurring his view of his boyfriend, and his throat clogged up. An involuntary sob tore free only to be muffled by the gag and he wiggled harder in his chair until hands were cupping his face and thumbs were stroking away the tears and Cas’s gravelly voice was droning on behind the blood rushing through his ears, a soothing, continuous murmur. And then the gag is gone, carelessly tossed away, and the next sob to burst free isn’t muffled.

“Shhh, Dean, I’ve got you,” Cas soothed as he trailed his hands down Dean’s cheeks and neck and shoulders and back around to undo the rope holding his chest to the chair.

Dean took several deep breaths, trying to will back the want to cry because Dean Winchester did not cry over being tied up and tortured! He’d experienced worse in hell and Cas was already untying his wrists anyway. But while he forced back a few sobs, the tears continued slipping down his cheeks and his breaths came in shuddering inhales and exhales.

“I’ve got you,” Cas soothed again, tossing away the last of the ropes, the ones that had bound his legs to the chair, and rising again. He held his hands out to Dean who griped them tightly and used the leverage to pull himself to his feet.

As he stood straight, a sharp pain stabbed through his back and hips at finally being upright and an involuntary whimper fell past his lips, his hands griping Cas’s harder.

“Dean?” Cas’s voice was just this side of panicked. “Are you hurt?”

“Just the normal pregnancy aches,” he clarified. “My back, my hips… My fucking tailbone kinda hurts, too.”

Cas wound his arms around his hunter and gently tugged Dean until he slumped forward against his chest. Then he trailed his hands down Dean’s back and over his hips, the familiar warm tingle of Cas’s grace soothing away the aches and pains as soon as the angel’s hands passed over them. Dean groaned in relief and slumped furhter into Cas’s chest, winding his own arms around him and burying his face into his neck.

“Thanks,” he practically moaned. He knew any cuts left over from Cael’s “experimenting” were gone, too.

Their moment was broken as Sam burst into the room, panting, eyes wide as they took in the room until they landed on the couple in the center. “Dean,” he breathed in relief. “You okay?”

“Yeah, m’good, Sammy,” Dean assured him as he gently pushed out of Cas’s hold. “I just wanna go home. Like, _Batcave_ home, not just the motel.”

“We can do that,” Sam assured. “But, ah… Cas and I still gotta burn the bones of our ghost.”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, two in as many days! Go me! And yes, I saved Dean in the same chapter I kidnapped him in but I’m no good at torture stuff so I cut it short. And yes, Cas has been calling the trips "fledglings" but Cael called them "nephilim" like in the show. That'll be addressed. I didn't forget what the show calls them when Cas was calling them fledglings and I didn't forget that Cas was calling them fledglings when Cael called them nephilim. ;)
> 
> This was supposed to fullfill the part of OP’s prompt that said Dean had to deal with hunting while pregnant but he didn’t do much actual _hunting_ … I hoe it’s still okay? If it’s not quite what you had in mind, I’ll come up with another hunting scenario in a future chapter.
> 
> My inability to write casefics is why I mostly write fluffy AUs but I couldn’t resist the eggpregg prompt which is set in the SPN universe and so, of course, hunting will pop up… But for the most part, this is a happy, fluffy we’re-having-babies prompt, so…
> 
> The violence depicted in this chapter is Dean getting cut in various places to see how the trips heal him, including a gash across one wrist. And his torturer makes a long cut down his belly to see what the trips will do but no real harm comes to the trips, promise.


	10. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate AUs in that I never know what season to set them in when season plots don’t affect my story line. They’re in the bunker which means past early season eight at least, but I figured that was generic enough for this story. However, I want certain people but don’t want certain plots to have happened… So to make things a little less confusing, this is what I’ve kept and what I’ve discarded. This is probably more thought than necessary for an AU fic in which anything can happen or not, but I’m OCD and if this is set in the Supernatural canon ‘verse but with alterations, I needed to think of everything that may be affected. For anyone else who needs to be that detailed, here is what I’ve changed (for anyone who doesn’t care and just wants to read the fic, you can skip the rest of this AN):
> 
> In this universe where Dean and Cas are a couple and having kids, I’m doing away with the Mark of Cain because it so drastically affects Dean and because it indirectly leads to Charlie’s death and I want her around. Now, you may be wondering “If he never got the Mark, what about Abaddon?” Well, I’m just going to say she never made it to the future chasing Henry who _does_ need to have made it to the future so the boys can still be in the bunker. “But then if Abaddon never comes to the future and therefore doesn’t kill him, where is Henry since Dean didn’t want him going back to the past because it would change the future?” He stayed and tried being a hunter in this time (think of when Mary is resurrected, trying to live in a time she’s unfamiliar with) but something killed him in lieu of Abaddon.
> 
> Then the trials happened and Sam almost died and Gadreel possessed him which led to Kevin’s death, but now Gadreel is gone. At the same time, Metatron was casting the angels out and stole Cas’s grace to do it, but I’m completely ignoring that because if I’m setting this after the trials and Gadreel, that means Cas would be on borrowed grace and I don’t want to have to think about how that would affect the triplets’ DNA if Cas didn’t have his own grace. Besides, I think it would be cute to have Cas teach the triplets to fly when they get older and if Metatron closed up Heaven, the angels can’t fly. I don’t know where he is or if he still becomes a dick after the trials/tablet/saving Kevin stuff in season eight, but he at least didn’t strip the angels of their ability to fly or go home.
> 
> I don’t know how much of this will actually be mentioned in the story itself, but for anyone wondering about certain plot lines as they read this, there it is.
> 
> Make sense? Okay, moving on!

* * *

In the weeks following the hunt in Sterling, the three settled into a routine almost like before Dean had pushed for the hunt. This time, however, it didn’t make him feel suffocated or trapped stay ing inside the bunker for  so long . After his ordeal with Cael, the high-level protection the Batcave offered made Dean feel safe and secure; he had no desire to leave again.

Instead, he busied himself with turning one of the larger rooms into a den, enlisting Castiel’s help in dragging in and mounting a television, an extremely comfortable couch, and a recliner because he quickly realized that the three of them didn't comfortably fit on the couch together. Especially when Dean, with his swollen belly, found it most comfortable lying on his side, head pillowed in Castiel’s lap. Sam had only teased him mildly when Dean had sent him out to pick up some throw pillows he’d found online to make lounging on the couch more comfortable. He’d found a small bookcase to use for lining DVDs in and started a small collection of shared DVDs. The three of them spent several nights relaxing in front of the television.

As the pregnancy progressed and Dean’s nausea completely disappeared, he found lemons weren’t his only craving. Out of nowhere, he started craving pickles. Though, when Sam suggested Dean put some in ice cream, the elder Winchester graced Sam with an expression as close to a bitchface as he could, the idea threatening to make him nauseous all over again. They soon discovered Dean’s favorite form of pickle was pickle flavored potato chips. He made sure Sam always picked up a bag or two (or three) whenever he went food shopping. Pickles didn’t override his craving for lemons though; Dean couldn’t seem to get enough of either.

In addition to a new craving, his appetite increased with the absence of nausea. Though eating more often again meant he had to take up the responsibility of cooking again because Cas didn’t know how and Sam’s culinary skills were questionable. Dean didn’t mind though, enjoying the early mornings in the kitchen while Sam finished his morning run. Castiel insisted he join Dean and help him cook and Dean couldn’t find in himself to argue, enjoying the domesticity of sharing the kitchen with his boyfriend and (grudgingly) admitting that he couldn’t move as fluidly as he could before he got pregnant. The help was probably necessary.

He and Castiel made breakfast, Sam usually made something simple for lunch, then they all made dinner together. Between, Dean found himself snacking on his pickle potato chips or various lemon flavored treats. He didn’t try eating any actual lemons again, the fruit too sour to enjoy the way he had that first time in the diner.

Though his appetite was up and his nausea was down, Dean’s body seemed to find other ways to cause him irritation. His back and hips and feet seemed to be in constant discomfort, his back and hips aching and his feet and ankles swelling. In a decision not entirely his own, he spent as much time off his feet as possible. Castiel would use grace now and then to ease as much of the pregnant hunter’s discomfort as he could but supplemented that with putting Jimmy’s pianist fingers to use massaging the achy parts of Dean’s body.

Toward the end of his sixteenth week, Dean finally got a positive experience of being pregnant.

The hunter had been nestled against a few pillows on the couch in the new den, watching a rerun of Dr. Sexy when he’d felt a strange sensation low in his abdomen. Idly, he rubbed at the area to ease the feeling, like scratching an itch to make the sensation of being itchy go away. Several minutes later, he felt it again. This time, he paid a little more attention to it and noticed that it felt like it was coming from inside his belly. It almost felt like bubbles or small ripples under his skin though he couldn’t feel anything with his palm against his stomach.

“Cas!” he called as he wiggled onto his back, keeping his hand pressed to the spot he’d felt it. “Cas, c’mere!”

He missed the hurried footsteps, too focused on eagerly waiting for the next little waves, but he did notice when the angel slid to a stop in the doorway, grasping the frame to keep himself from falling. Sam appeared behind him, expression just as worried, catching himself before slamming into the angel.

“Are you alright?” Cas asked, breathless.

“I’m fine,” Dean assured him, waving him over with his free hand. “I think I can feel them moving!”

Cas’s brow furrowed in confusion as he crossed the room to kneel beside where Dean sat on the couch. “What?”

“It feels like little ripples or waves. Remember the bubbly feeling I had in the car on the way to Sterling?” he asked, continuing when the other two nodded. “It’s like that but… amplified, I guess. It feels weird, but not terrible.”

“They are big enough to be moving a bit,” Sam confirmed.

“Their movement is likely making their eggs shift inside you which is what you’re feeling,” Cas confirmed.

“S’weird,” Dean mumbled, staring in awe at his belly and stroking his hand back and forth across his lower abdomen. “I wish I could feel them kicking.”

“I think, the bigger they get, you’ll realize you’re lucky _not_ to,” Sam said with a huff of amusement.

Dean only hummed in response, expression falling as he finally moved his palm away from where he’d felt the movement.

“Dean?” Cas called quietly, reaching out to take one his boyfriend’s hands which Dean squeezed lightly in reassurance.

“I’m fine,” the hunter murmured. “Just remembering that this is probably the best I’m gonna get and you can’t feel it at all.”

“Dean,” the angel soothed. “I told you, I don’t need to feel their physical movement to enjoy seeing you carry them. I can feel their grace, remember?”

Dean nodded, shifting onto his side to face the angel. “I know. I don’t know why it bothers me so much. And I guess I should be thankful they won’t get to kick my ribs or stomp on my bladder.” After a hesitant pause, he gently took his angel’s hand and pressed their palms to his abdomen.

They lapsed into a peaceful silence, Dean content to rest and feel his children move, and Castiel happy to rub soothing circles into Dean’s warm belly and feel the thrumming of the triplets’ grace. At some point, Sam slipped into the recliner and started a movie, the three watching in comfortable silence.

“Hey, Cas?” Dean asked halfway through the movie. “I was thinking… While Cael had me tied up, he kept going on about how the triplets are powerful – that was the only reason I was kept alive; for them, for their power. Anyway, he kept calling them nephilim, but- What?” As soon as he’d said “nephilim,” he’d noticed the way the angel tensed, jaw setting and lips thinning.

“Technically,” Castiel growled, “they _are_ nephilim  – half-angel children fathered by angels and carried by human ‘mothers.’ I’ve been calling them fledglings – the term for newly-born angels – because ‘nephilim’ has a negative connotation to angels. They were evil and caused destruction, and God destroyed them all and forbade their creation. To Heaven, the triplets are illegal and abominations, and should be destroyed. But a child isn’t evil because of what it is; they have to be _taught_ evil. Our children _will_ be good.”

“Nature versus nurture,” Sam added thoughtfully.

“Precisely,” Castiel agreed.

“You were calling them fledglings to make their existence positive,” Dean said in realization. At Castiel’s nod, he leaned forward and pressed his lips firmly to the angel’s. “That’s sweet, Cas. Fledglings will be what we call them then.”

“Hey, guys,” Sam interrupted, tone thoughtful. “This brings up another point. The angels aren’t going to like the triplets existing. I mean, Cael and the few angels working for him are proof of Cas’s point. What if other angels come after Dean for the triplets? Some may not be as power-hungry as Cael and may want to _kill_ Dean to kill the triplets. Or, I don’t know, _after_ the birth? The triplets will always be in _some_ form of danger.”

“Way to be positive, Sam,” Dean muttered, tugging Castiel’s hand until the angel got the hint and got comfortable on one end of the couch. Dean immediately settled back down onto his side, his head in Castiel’s lap.

“I’m not trying to say having the babies isn’t a good thing! You two aren’t the only ones who are already attached,” Sam said fondly. “I’m just saying, attacks like Cael are likely going to keep happening and will likely get worse. We have to do _something._ You guys can’t stay locked up in the bunker forever.”

"It _would_ be nice to be able to take the kids outside,” Dean  sighed wistfully, imagining his children running around a large backyard, Castiel somewhere nearby in a garden planted just for him because it would attract bees and Dean knew the angel liked the insects, himself sitting on a back porch or patio with a beer as he watched his family, Sam beside him with a book and his own beer. He blinked back tears that filled his eyes at the thought that he would never get that kind of happy ending for his kids. “I did say before that I don’t want them to grow up in the bunker – in _hunting._ We can’t have a house if angels will constantly attack us – or any monsters wanting their powers, for that matter.”

“Not growing up in the bunker could be easily changed,” Cas interjected, beginning to card his fingers through Dean’s hair. “Simply find a house and move.”

“It’s not as easy as that, Cas,” Sam countered. “First, we can’t afford a house. Not with fake credit cards; they won’t cover a purchase that large. And we’re still on the FBI’s wanted list; no one would sell us a house if they realized who we are. Second, leaving the bunker means leaving protection which we need to have around Dean while he’s pregnant and the triplets after they’re born. We can’t ward the house against angels like we could my motel room in Sterling with a full angel and, ah, half angels living there. I’m not sure how much angel warding affects half angels, but I don’t want to risk it.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Castiel admitted, smiling slightly at the way Sam avoided using the word he hated while explaining that the children weren’t full angel fledglings. “I have never been around half angel children before. I don’t know if their soul halves will change how angel warding affects them or not.”

Sam nodded his understanding. “Exactly. Which is why I don’t want to have to put up angel warding in a home.”

“What if we could use some of the bunker’s protection?” Dean suggested, blinking his eyes drowsily. “We’re protected here, but Cas can still come and go. If we recreate that in a home, he and the triplets should be okay living there, right?”

“In theory, that sounds like a perfect solution,” Sam agreed though his tone didn’t sound completely on board with the idea. “But the bunker’s protection is sophisticated, and I’m not sure I’d be able to understand it well enough to copy it safely. It would take tech skills I don’t have.”

“Charlie could,” Dean countered. “She could probably wire us some money, too. Hell, with enough time, she could probably hack into the FBI’s database and wipe any traces of us from there, too.”

“Maybe, but we don’t know where she is,” Sam said. “Ever since her trip to Oz and being put back together, she’s been off hunting on her own.”

“She likes the adventure,” Dean agreed before yawning and letting his eyes close.

“Sam,” Castiel said, lowering his voice in deference to his drowsy boyfriend. “We can’t resolve anything right this moment, but maybe you could try contacting Charlie to help us?”

Sam nodded. “Yeah, of course. I’ll try calling her tomorrow. You need help with him?” he asked, gesturing to Dean who had begun to snore lightly.

Castiel smiled fondly down at his boyfriend and shook his head. “No, I’ve got him.”

“Okay then,” Sam replied as he stood, stretching his arms above his head. “Night, Cas.”

“Goodnight, Sam,” the angel said fondly, watching the hunter exit the room before returning his attention to Dean.

After watching him sleep for a moment longer, he carefully arranged the hunter into a cradle hold in his arms then smoothly stood. Dean stirred slightly in his sleep, nuzzling into Castiel’s shoulder as he was carried to their room. The angel arranged his hunter comfortably in their bed then slipped in on his own side, immediately gathering Dean back into his arms as the hunter slept. As had become  a habit to him while Dean slept, one of Castiel’s hands slipped down to the swell of Dean’s belly, caressing the firm plane in slow circles as he felt out the grace-soul signatures of his children, keeping watch over them as well as his hunter.

~~~

“Thanks, Charlie, you’re awesome,” Sam said with a grin before ending the call and setting his phone down in front of him.

“You called Charlie already?” Dean asked as he made his way into the library and carefully lowered himself into a seat. “I thought it would be harder to get in touch. What’s she up to?”

“She’s, uh, actually already on her way here. She just finished up a werewolf case in Missouri a few days ago and was headed here, hoping we’d let her stay for a while. Sounds like she needs a break,” Sam explained.

“Of course we’d let her stay,” Dean said, sounding almost offended that someone he considered family would think they couldn’t stay in the bunker. “Did you tell her about, uh…?” He trailed off, gesturing to his belly.

“I didn’t think that would go over well on the phone,” Sam answered. “Kinda thought she might need to see it to believe it.”

Dean nodded slowly in understanding. Even with the things they all dealt with, there were just some things that were  _to_ _o_ unusual to believe unless they could see it with their own eyes. “Okay, when is she gonna get here?”

“She said she’s only an hour or two out.”

Dean nodded, one hand slowly rubbing the side of his belly as he stared at the table. If Charlie could help them do what they planned to, they could be moving out of the bunker. This place had been home for two years – the longest they’ve ever settled in on e place after their mother died. Logically, Dean knew that moving out didn’t mean they’d never see the bunker again. It would likely become their workplace instead of their home, a place to store all their rare books and magical objects safely away from the triplets. And maybe someday, when the triplets were old enough to decide for themselves, they could see this place and decide if hunting was what they wanted.  Perhaps as a hobby like Charlie seemed to do instead of as a lifestyle like Sam, Castiel, and himself had been forced into.

Thinking about moving out filled Dean with a sense of loss and melancholy, but it also gave him hope and reminded him that they’d be moving into a home – a real home – something they hadn’t had since their mother died. Sure, Bobby had tried whenever John dumped them in Sioux Falls with their uncle, but the boys had never been able to stay longer than a month or two before John came to collect them again. Now, his kids could have a stable place to live, to grow. They could (possibly) attend school when they were old enough, something he’d have to discuss with Cas, and it would be the _same_ school for more than a week or two. There would be a yard to play in instead of a concrete parking lot like at all those motels Sam and Dean had been forced to stay in as John dragged them across the country.

Any cross-country treks the triplets would go on would be family vacations. They’d go places more fun than the world’s largest ball of twine which Dean had lost count of how many times he’d seen. Maybe they could all go to Disney; it didn’t matter which one. That was something Sam and Dean had never done as kids, and Dean could imagine the wonder on his kids’ faces when they got there.

“Dude, you okay?” Sam asked, breaking Dean of his thoughts.

Dean blinked several times, realizing he had tears sliding down his face. He quickly wiped them away and nodded.

“Yeah, just thinking,” he said. “If Charlie can pull this off, the triplets will have everything we never did.”

Sam nodded, offering his brother a small smile. “You’ll never completely give up hunting though. I know you can’t.”

Dean shook his head, unsure of the truth of that sentiment. True, hunting was all he’d known since he was a child, and he’d tried the apple pie life with Lisa which hadn’t worked out, but that was different. He hadn’t loved Lisa like he loved Castiel, and Sam had been dead – or Dean had thought he was dead. This time around, he would have Sam with him. And while Sam had had the opportunity to get away, to try going to college before Dean had dragged him back into the life, Dean hadn’t had that chance. Hunting was all he’d known. He couldn’t decide if having been in that life so long would make it easier or harder to give it up. Sure, now that he was going to be a parent, he’d cut back and would never bring that life around his children, but he wasn’t sure if it could be something he never did again.

And then a thought struck him, chilling him down to his bones and making his heart beat harder in his chest.

“Sammy,” he whispered, wide eyes filling with tears as he turned to look at his brother. “I’m gonna die.”

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, that statement sounds very random, but I purposely left out Dean’s thought process to that end realization until next chapter for the “Wtf?!” factor. Sorry! ^^;
> 
> Also, I sincerely, deeply apologize for such a long wait! I did say that it would only be a month because of moving but then I got stuck when I finally started this chapter and couldn’t figure out where to go! However, I have several plans for this now and shouldn’t take three to four months to update again. :D


	11. Chapter 10

* * *

“What?” Sam gasped in shock, wide eyes closely watching his distressed brother as if the older man were about to drop dead right then and there.

Had his brother and Cas been keeping something from him? They had assured him that Dean carrying angel babies wasn't going to harm him, that Cas’s grace was helping things along, but Dean _was_ human and carrying _three_ celestial offspring. _And_ he was male. Was this pregnancy going to kill him?

“I'm gonna die,” Dean repeated, breath hitching as tears slid down his face. He immediately ducked his head so Sam couldn't see him cry.

A flutter of wings announced Castiel’s presence a split second before he appeared. The angel seemed to only have eyes for Dean, immediately kneeling beside Dean’s chair, one hand going to his back and rubbing soothing circles while the other covered one of Dean’s, still resting on his belly. He ducked his head to put himself in Dean’s line of sight, trying to get the hunter to look at him.

“Dean, sweetheart, I could feel your distress across the bunker. What's gotten you so upset?” he coaxed, deep voice low and gentle.

Dean shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut tightly so he didn't have to see the worry on his angel’s face. His breath hitched a few more times as he fought back the urge to sob openly.

“Sam?” Castiel demanded, turning to the younger Winchester. “What happened?”

Sam shook his head, not entirely sure. They had been having a seemingly normal conversation until Dean had blurted out that he was going to die. Sam had no idea how his brother came upon that conclusion. The best he could do was explain their conversation to Cas and let the angel figure it out. When Sam got to the end, Dean was fully sobbing, the hand that had been covered by Castiel’s now gripping it tightly.

“Dean,” Castiel said softly. “I promise, carrying our children isn't going to kill you if that's what's got you so worried. You're perfectly safe.”

Dean shook his head. “Not that,” he whispered gruffly between hitching breaths as he tried to stop crying.

“Then what is it?” Castiel pressed, no less patient with his distressed boyfriend than when he arrived despite the worry filling his gaze and turning his mouth into a frown. “Why do you think you're going to die?”

“Because I _am_!” Dean cried, finally meeting Castiel’s eyes with a glare. “I'm _human_ , Cas! If I get lucky and a hunt doesn't end me, I'll get old and die! And you're an angel – practically immortal – and I'm inclined to think our kids will either be immortal or live longer than a human because of their angelic half I’m almost forty; if I’m lucky, I got maybe another forty or fifty years left, and the quality of those years just goes downhill the older you get. So, I won’t get to see very much of our kids’ lives, and then what? I’ll be salted and burned – because you know that's what I'd want – alone in whatever afterlife I get, and I gotta say, I don't think I'd be happy spending eternity in Heaven. Especially without you. I don't want to spend forever without you and the kids.” After his rant, Dean dissolved into sobs once more, crying harder than he had so far, giving up all pretense of being okay.

“Oh, Dean,” Castiel sighed, rising enough to allow Dean to bury his face into the angel’s shoulder as he wrapped his arms around his hunter. He felt Dean do the same, clinging to him as he sobbed. His heart broke at hearing the despair in the way his boyfriend spoke and the way Dean Winchester, one of the strongest humans the angel knew, felt so much pain that he couldn’t even pretend to be okay as he usually would.

The angel turned worried eyes to the other hunter in the room, but Sam looked just as lost, staring in shock at his distraught brother. What could they say? Nothing they knew of could make Dean immortal short of turning him into a vampire or other monster that lived forever, and none of them were stupid enough to do that. Sam could point out his own mortality, but that would likely remind his brother that, when they were gone, Cas and the triplets would only have each other. They had very few friends left, and the few they had were all human and would die, too.

“Dean?” Cas called gently as the hunter’s sobs tapered off, leaving a weary Winchester resting against his shoulder. “Do you regret our choice to have children? Because you won’t get to see them grow?”

“What?!” gasped Dean, jerking away from the angel enough to see his face, his own expression filled with horror. “No! Of course not, Cas! I still love them, and I’ll still love them for however long I get to watch them grow! I would never wish they didn’t exist. This was always going to be an issue with us though,” he admitted. “I’m human; you’re not. I’ll die; you won’t. Eventually, we’d have realized we don’t get a forever, Cas.” As he spoke, his mood shifted from surprised to depressed once more, and he gently extricated himself from the angel’s hold to push himself to his feet. As Cas tried helping him stand, Dean pushed him away.

“Dean-”

“I’m tired,” Dean mumbled, slowly making his way out of the library. “I’m going to go lie down.”

Castiel sighed as he dropped into a chair beside Sam, staring sadly at the exit where Dean just disappeared. “What do I do, Sam? I can’t fix this like when he’s hungry, or when his back hurts, or when he wants something moved. I can’t _make_ Dean live longer.”

“I know, Cas,” Sam said softly, reaching out to clasp his friend on the shoulder. “This may not be something we can fix.”

“It isn’t fair,” the angel growled, tensing under Sam’s touch though the hunter didn’t remove his hand. “Angels were made to follow orders; we weren’t supposed to have free will or to have emotion. And I don’t regret choosing humanity over Heaven – I love Dean, and I care very much for you, Sam. But why was it a _human_ I fell in love with when it could never last? The time I will have with you and Dean is merely a blink in my very long existence, and then you will both be gone. I will have our children, and I will love them with everything that I am, but as Dean said, I don’t know if they will truly be immortal, or if they will one day die, too. And then what? Then I will be just as alone as before I met you both, and… I don’t want to live forever if it means not having anyone again.”

Sam blinked back tears and cleared his throat when the emotion in Castiel’s voice after seeing his brother so upset over the same thing threatened to send him into tears as well. “Cas-” He swallowed again and lifted a hand to wipe at his eyes. “Cas, there has to be some way to change that. I mean, I get that your dad hasn’t been around for a very long time, but I can’t believe that He wouldn’t be watching over everyone.”

“If God were watching, He would have come down to kill my children the moment they were conceived,” Cas growled, shrugging Sam’s hand away. “I suppose, for once, it’s a good thing Father stopped caring about everything He created,” he said bitterly before standing and striding from the room. Sam heard the angel’s steps ascending the stairs then the creak and slam of the front door being open then shut again.

He sighed, shoulders slumping, as he was left alone in the library. With one errant thought, his family was hurting. And Sam couldn’t fix it this time. As far as he could see, the only thing that would fix this would be to make Dean an angel so he could spend forever with Castiel and their children. But that was impossible, and if there _was_ a way hidden somewhere in all the books surrounding him, it probably was untested, and he wouldn’t risk Dean’s life on a spell or ritual that _might_ work.

Thinking of spells, the next possibility that came to Sam were witches, but he quickly dismissed that line of thought as well. Asking a witch meant a high price in exchange. And any spells they could have that _might_ work would be dark magic. Who knows how that kind of spell would affect Dean?

With a defeated sigh, he tugged his notes on the bunker’s security closer, intending to figure out as much as he could about how it worked so he and Charlie could replicate it in a house. Because Sam _would_ figure this out, and they _would_ get their happily ever after in a real home. For as long as he and Dean were around, Sam would make sure the triplets didn’t grow up on the road like they had.

He was jerked from his research some time later by loud banging on the front door. He pulled his gun from the waistband of his jeans as he slowly rose to his feet. The knocking persisted, so he crept through the foyer toward the stairs.

“Sam, it’s me!”

“Charlie?” he said aloud, quickly pushing his gun back into his jeans and jogging up the stairs to open the door for her.

“What’s up?” the redhead greeted with a grin, standing on her tiptoes and unceremoniously throwing her arms around Sam’s neck.

“Hey,” Sam sighed in relief as he hugged her back. “You made it.”

“Thanks for letting me crash here for a while,” she said as she pulled away, hefting her duffel up onto her shoulder and brushing past Sam to enter the bunker. She whistled as she looked down from the balcony. “That is never _not_ gonna be an awesome view.”

Sam chuckled as he closed the door and followed her in. “Dean’s asleep, so I don’t know if you want to freshen up since he’s not around to explain why we needed your help, or we could start, and you can just trust that we’ll explain it when he’s ready.”

“And why does Dean need to be around?” Charlie asked in clear confusion as they descended the stairs. “Can’t you do it?”

“Trust me, you’ll want Dean,” Sam said cryptically. “But he wasn’t feeling well, so he’s resting.”

“Well, give me a cup of coffee, and I’m good to get started,” Charlie said, plopping her duffel bag onto one of the library tables with finality. “Laptop’s in here in case we need it, but I don’t even know what the heck we’re doing, so…”

“I suppose I can tell you most of this without Dean,” Sam hedged, sitting on the edge of the table across from where Charlie stood. “It might not make sense, but it will, promise.”

At her nod, Sam launched into his requests to replicate the bunker’s security, wipe them from the FBI’s database, and find a way to wire them enough cash to buy a house without raising suspicion. He left out the part about how they wanted those things because Dean was _pregnant_ with babies that they wanted to be protected but not hunting.

“The money is no big deal; the FBI thing is a little trickier, but I think I can do it; the bunker stuff… That’s mixing tech and magic – granted, nineteen-fifties tech which should be easier to crack – so it might take time,” Charlie explained. “But why do you want to buy and ward a _house_ when you got this awesome Batcave?”

“That’s the part that Dean needs to explain to you,” Sam said with an apologetic smile. And we’ve got time, so no big deal if you can’t crack the security thing right away.” By his calculations, they had about five months, maybe four, until the triplets were born, but they didn’t need to leave the bunker right away. They had set up spaces for the triplets who wouldn’t outgrow them for a year or two.

“Okay,” Charlie said, clapping her hands and rubbing them together. “What do we start with first? Easy and quick or the hard one?”

“Hard one,” Sam answered. They wouldn’t need the other two if they couldn’t replicate the bunker’s warding.

“Got it. Show me how it all works, and I’ll see what I can do!”

~~~

Dean groaned as he wiggled to the edge of the bed and into a sitting position, rubbing his eyes. The nap he’d taken had helped emotionally – he didn’t feel like he was going to burst into tears though the thought of his mortality still made him depressed – but lying in one place did little for him physically. He ached. _Everywhere._ It hadn’t escaped his notice that Cas hadn’t come to rest with him though he realized he hadn’t given the angel much choice with the way he’d left them.

Hoping his boyfriend was still in the library with Sam, Dean pushed himself to his feet, one hand supporting his belly, and shuffled down the hall toward the library. As he neared the room, he heard Sam talking to someone, but the responding voice was definitely _not_ his boyfriend.

Charlie!

She couldn’t see him like this yet! Not if Sam hadn’t explained everything to her, and Dean couldn’t know that without talking to Sam who was currently with Charlie in the library who couldn’t see him yet, and-

“Sam,” Dean called, hoping to alert his brother that he was awake without gaining Charlie’s attention, too.

A few seconds later, Sam jogged out of the library sans Charlie.

“You’re awake,” he said, smiling fondly. “Feeling better?”

Dean shrugged, ignoring the question. “Charlie’s here,” he said.

Sam nodded. “Yeah, I told her what we needed, but I haven’t told her why. We’ve been working on trying to replicate the bunker security.”

“And?”

Sam sighed and shook his head. “Nothing yet. But this part is the complex part, and we’ve got time.”

Dean sighed, trying not to be disappointed. Of course, he knew this wasn’t going to be an easy fix; that didn’t mean they’d never get a proper home. And Sam was right – the triplets weren’t due for another four or five months, and they’d be too little to understand anything around the bunker for awhile anyway. “Go tell her; call me when you need me to make my grand entrance,” he said with a grin.

Sam rolled his eyes, but turned and reentered the library.

“Where’s Dean?” the hunter in question heard their tech friend ask.

“He’s out there still,” Sam said. “Listen, you know how I said Dean should be the one to explain why we needed your help?” Silence in which Dean assumed Charlie was nodding. “Well, it’s because you kind of have to _see_ him to believe me when I tell you that we need your help because he’s… kind of pregnant with angelic eggs that will hatch into triplets that we don’t want hunting and the bunker isn’t safe for kids anyway, you know?”

“Sam, stop a second,” Charlie said. “You lost me at Dean is _pregnant_?”

Dean heard Sam sigh then call, “Dean?”

Taking a deep breath to brace himself and keeping one hand under his belly, Dean slowly stepped into the library’s entrance and up the few steps. He watched Charlie closely, seeing her eyes widen and lock onto his belly, her lips part in shock as she gasped, then her eyes flick to his face then Sam’s.

“You… You were serious,” she whispered.

Dean nodded, stepping further into the room. “You can feel it if you want to though there’s not much to feel. Even if they were active at the moment – which they’re not – they can’t be felt from the outside.”

Charlie continued to stare at his belly as she took a few tentative steps forward, a hand held toward his middle. She stopped inches from making contact, looked up at him for a second, then slowly laid her palm against his belly until it followed the contour of the slope.

“Holy freaking Batman,” she whispered. “This is really real… warm and soft-but-kinda-firm and not squishy like I imagine fake bellies are for movies and stuff, but then again, how would I know?” she rambled before cutting herself off with an audible swallow, lifting her eyes to meet Dean’s without removing her hand.

The hunter’s lip twitched in a small smile as he pressed his palms into his aching back. “Really real,” he confirmed. “You good? Not gonna pass out on us, are you? ‘Cause, you know I love you like the sister I never had, but I can’t catch you right now.”

“No, no, not passing out. Though I should probably stop, um…” She retracted her hand and took a step back. “You look like you wanna sit down, so…”

“Not gonna lie, that sounds like a damn good idea,” Dean agreed, moving to one of the chairs at the table on which the other two had set up their things. He carefully lowered himself into it then looked around once he was settled. “Hey, where’s Cas?”

“After you went to lie down, he went out,” Sam said. “No idea where, but he seemed like he needed his space, too. He seemed kind of upset after you left.”

“Upset how?” Dean asked.

Sam shrugged. “Like it had finally hit him that you’re mortal and he’s not.”

_Cas_ , Dean mentally sighed. _You better not be doing something stupid._

~~~

As soon as Castiel was outside the bunker’s warding, he spread his wings and took flight. He didn’t have any particular destination in mind, but after Dean’s confession, the angel felt as if he’d been doused with cold water, and just needed time alone to think. He supposed, on some subconscious level, he had known he would outlive Dean, but it had never quite hit him as it had just then. And maybe it was better to think about it now that they were having children. The triplets could keep him company for as long as they lived, whether it was forever like Castiel, or hundreds of years, doomed to die because of their human parent.

But, deep down, Castiel knew having the triplets wouldn’t be the same as having Dean at his side.

The thought of living any amount of time without his hunter had the angel’s heart breaking in his chest, and his flight faltered. He found himself landing on the edge of a wide river surrounded by trees on either side. The hushed sound of gently moving water calmed him though it didn’t completely erase the hurt.

Castiel took a few tentative steps toward the water then crouched down at its edge, staring at his reflection in the gently moving water. An aged face with crow’s feet, pinched brow, and prominent frown stared back at him. As long as Castiel, an angel, inhabited this body, it couldn’t age. And yet, somehow, Castiel’s face seemed to show every one of the ten years that had passed since Jimmy Novak said “yes.” He realized it was probably the stress of his life – Apocalypse I and II, both averted; the war in Heaven; Leviathans wearing it down; the time he spent as a human.

Even grace could only do so much.

“I suppose I match Dean now,” he said to his reflection. Though Jimmy had only been five years older than Dean, so his body didn’t have to age much to reach the hunter.

And as Castiel stared at his reflection, thoughts whirling and connecting, two things simultaneously made themselves known at the forefront of his brain:

He had been human once before.

And if he were human, he would age and die with Dean.

Rising from where he knelt by the river, Castiel sighed and looked toward the sky, knowing he had to call upon the one person that would either help him or kill his children. And if it came to the latter, Castiel would defend Dean and the triplets until his dying breath. For the first time in almost ten years, Castiel prayed.

“Father…”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> H'oh, boy, what's Cas up to??


	12. Chapter 11

* * *

Charlie was watching him.

Dean felt her eyes on him as the three of them researched, looking through the Men of Letters’ journals for instructions or explanations of any kind on how they warded the bunker. Every few pages, he’d glance in her direction, catching her eye just before she dropped her gaze back to her own work. After an hour of this, he sighed and slammed his book shut which made the other two startle and stare at him with wide eyes.

“Okay, whatever your issue is, Charlie, spit it out,” he growled. “You keep staring at me like I’m going to explode any second, and I promise, they ain’t coming for a few more months.”

Charlie blushed in embarrassment, ducking her head and pushing her short hair behind her ears. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

Dean’s expression softened, and he leaned over to wrap an arm around her, pressing a kiss to her temple. “I didn’t mean to snap at you. I’m sorry. But can you please tell me why you keep staring at me?”

“I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around this,” she admitted. “I mean, I can _see_ it, I _touched_ it, but… Dean, you’re a _guy!_ How the hell does this happen?”

“Cas,” Dean said as if that explained everything, leaning back in his seat again. He didn’t realize he’d started idly rubbing his belly until Charlie’s gaze dropped to it, and he immediately stopped. “He, uh… When an angel reproduces-”

“Okay!” Sam interrupted, pushing himself to his feet. “I don’t need to hear this. I’m gonna go make some coffee. Either of you want anything?”

When they shook their heads, Sam gratefully escaped into the kitchen.

“You were saying?” Charlie said with an amused smile.

Dean launched into the explanation of how angels reproduced with eggs that Cas had to deposit into him then “fertilize” with his own come – they’d both flushed as red as Charlie’s hair through that, but he’d tried to be as clean about the explanation as he could. He explained how they grew their own bodies in their eggs because of their human sides from him, negating the need to find vessels or live in Heaven as soon as they were born. When the topic of Heaven came up, he explained how what they were – warning her never to use that word around Cas, to call them “fledglings” instead – was illegal, and the ones that had lived so long ago had been bad, but his kids were going to be good.

She asked him about their names, so he listed off the names they came up with, the redhead writing them down as he did then making several different pairs with the names. Curious, Dean had leaned over to read what she’d written down, noticing she was trying to form first and middle name combinations. Some sounded pretty good, so he asked to have the page when she was finished. He and Cas could look over them. Though they still didn’t know what genders the triplets would be, they _did_ need middle names, and Charlie had given them a good start.

Sam eventually returned with his coffee and joined the conversation. The more the three of them talked, the more relaxed Charlie became. Conversely, the longer they sat there, the more uncomfortable _Dean_ became. His back and hips were aching again by now, and he wanted Cas to come home so the angel could ease the pain.

As if on cue, the bunker door squeaked open, and the angel descended the stairs.

“Cas?” Dean called, pushing himself to his feet with a little difficulty; Charlie stood and helped him up which he hated to admit he was grateful for. He met the angel in the middle of the war room, pressing his hands into his lower back and resisting the urge to rub at his hips. “Where did you go?”

“I, um, needed time alone, and went on a flight. I’m sorry if I worried you,” the angel said.

“Is everything okay?” Dean asked, slipping his arms up around his boyfriend’s shoulders and leaning into him when the angel wrapped his own arms around the hunter.

“Everything is fine, Dean,” Cas promised, beginning to knead the muscles in the pregnant man’s back which made Dean groan appreciatively. “Are you in pain?”

Dean nodded against the angel’s shoulder. “Sat too long in the library.”

“Have you found a way to replicate the bunker’s warding?” Cas asked, looking to Sam and Charlie standing in the library doorway, watching the angel and hunter.

“Not yet,” Charlie admitted. “But I did notice there are specific warding symbols in different places in this room alone. I did some digging in a few books, and I _think_ they keep anything from just popping in here.”

“That sounds right,” Cas agreed. “I cannot just fly into the bunker. I must land outside.”

Dean snorted in amusement where he’d nuzzled into his boyfriend’s neck, relaxed now that the angel had used some of his grace to ease the aches in his body. “Yeah, Cas has to use the door like the rest of us.”

“Anyway,” Charlie continued, “I’m thinking that if we incorporate those symbols into the protection you want on a home, it could help.”

“You mean like putting together our own security system with our own spells?” Sam asked.

Charlie nodded. “Yeah, exactly. I still have to look at the tech this place uses, but the magical part shouldn’t be too hard to copy.”

Before anyone could say anything more, pounding on the door echoed through the open space. All four pairs of eyes snapped up to the balcony, waiting for someone to burst into the room. When the pounding repeated, Sam slowly removed the gun taped under the map table and slowly climbed the stairs. When he pulled the creaky door open, all four of them gasped at the person standing there.

“Chuck?” Dean said in surprise and shifted he and Cas so that the angel blocked him from view, unsure how the former prophet would react to seeing a pregnant male hunter.

“Hey, guys,” Chuck said with a sheepish smile as he stepped into the bunker.

“Ah, Chuck,” Sam said, lowering his gun. “What are you doing here? _How_ are you here? We thought you were dead. And how did you know where we were?”

“Cas called me,” Chuck said, looking over the railing down at the angel.

“No, I didn’t,” Cas countered, brow furrowing in confusion.

The former prophet chuckled and reached into his jacket pocket. “I suppose this might help.”

“I threw that away,” Dean said in disbelief when he saw the amulet the prophet dangled from his fingers.

“And I knew you’d need it someday, so I rescued it,” Chuck explained. Then he snapped his fingers, and the amulet began to glow.

“Father,” Castiel whispered in awe then his stance became defensive in front of his hunter.

“Cas,” Dean growled. “What did he mean you _called_ him? Did you pray to _God_?!”

_“God?”_ Charlie squeaked from her place behind Dean and Castiel.

“Hi,” Chuck said shyly, waving a hand. “Chuck is fine though.”

“I… I thought he could help,” Cas explained to Dean’s question. “But he never showed.”

Chuck snapped his fingers, and the amulet stopped glowing. In the next second, he stood before the couple, the sudden appearance causing Castiel to release his angel blade into his palm, waiting for an attack.

“Relax, Castiel,” Chuck said calmly. “I’m not going to hurt your kids.”

“You know about them?” Sam asked, descending the stairs to join them.

“Of course. They _are_ part angel. I sensed them the moment they were conceived,” Chuck explained.

“First you tell me that dudes can get pregnant with angel children and now I’m meeting God,” Charlie mumbled, sinking down onto the library steps. “Wait, you don’t care that I’m-”

“Gay?” Chuck supplied knowingly then shook his head. “Nope. Contrary to what people say I think, I don’t care about sexuality. I made humans as they are; I can’t start condemning some of my children because they love the same gender.”

Charlie nodded, still stunned. “Oh. Cool.”

“Look, Chuck,” Dean interrupted, glaring at the man over Cas’s shoulder. “I’m glad you don’t care that Charlie’s gay, or that I’m carrying illegal angel babies-”

“Oh, they’re not illegal,” Chuck said. “I wiped out the others all those centuries ago because they were a failed race. I let them be born because I wanted to see what the offspring of my two best species would be like, but they learned to be hateful to the humans that carried them, thinking they were superior because of their angelic parentage. The angels that fathered them didn’t care about the humans I meant for them to serve, thinking them beneath angelkind. When those beliefs corrupted their children who were powerful enough to wipe out one of the creations I loved, I ended them.”

“Then what’s to stop you from ‘ending’ my kids?” Dean snarled.

“Because they’re _yours_ ,” Chuck said as if that explained it all. “Their angel parent is an angel that rebelled against what he’d been told, knowing his brothers and sisters in Heaven are wrong, and choosing humanity over Heaven, just as I’d wanted. Their human parent can teach them about free will, but also that having free will does not mean harming others.”

“So… you’re going to let the triplets live?” Sam asked.

Chuck nodded. “After everything you’ve all done for me, for the world, you deserve a happy ending. For Dean and Castiel, that includes children. I don’t expect you all to stop hunting completely, of course. Even to start a family. I know it’s who you are. And I appreciate that you keep people safe.”

With God’s word that his kids were safe, Dean slowly stepped out from behind Castiel. Chuck’s gaze didn’t even drop down to his belly, the prophet smiling non-threateningly at the hunter. The angel slowly retracted his blade and let his posture relax now that he knew his mate and children weren’t in danger.

“If you’re not here to kill my kids, why _are_ you here?” Dean asked.

“As I said, Castiel called me,” Chuck repeated, nodding to the angel. “He had a particular request. And I didn’t think it was something I should answer without seeing the rest of you first.”

Dean turned Castiel who had averted his gaze. “Cas? What did you ask _God_ for?”

Cas opened and closed his mouth a couple of times then cleared his throat. “I… I asked Him to make me human.”

“You did _what?!_ ” Dean cried, joined in by Sam’s protests. “Why would you do that?!”

“Because you’ll die!” Cas countered, glaring at his boyfriend. “You’ll die, and I’ll be left alone _forever_! If I’m human, we’ll spend forever together in Heaven after we die.”

All Dean could manage around the lump forming in his throat at the thought of his angel not existing anymore was a broken, whispered “Cas…”

“Guys,” Chuck said, barely above a whisper himself. “Castiel’s request comes from the belief that Dean and the triplets are going to die someday. First, I can tell you that the triplets’ grace will keep them from dying. Second, as for being separated because Dean is mortal, I will solve that problem, too. _Not_ by answering Castiel’s request to become human!” he quickly added when Sam and Dean began to protest. “Instead of Castiel dying a human death, I’m going to give Dean an angel’s life.”

Dean stared at Chuck for several seconds, unsure he’d heard correctly. When his brain assured him that, yes, that’s what Chuck had said, he couldn’t believe that’s what had been offered. “Why?” he whispered. “Why would you want me to be an angel?”

“Is that even possible?” asked Sam.

“Theoretically,” Chuck said with a shrug. “An angel’s grace and a human soul were created from basically the same stuff. I think, if I can alter your soul enough, I can turn it into your own grace. But this has never been done before, so I don’t know the risks. I certainly will not try it until after you’ve given birth.”

“But _why?_ ” Dean repeated.

“Because you’ve done so much for this world when all I did was stick my head in the sand and hope it all worked out. You’re a good man, Dean. I want to give you your happy ending. And the way I see it, that happy ending is living forever with your angel and kids. Not sitting around some little bubble of Heaven drinking beer. But like I said, I’m not going to put you through it until the triplets are born. I don’t know what it could do to them. So you have until then to decide. If you’d rather Cas become human, I’ll take his grace. If you decide that the way you’re going now is best, I’ll respect your decision. You know how to reach me. I’ll be listening.”

“Wait,” Charlie said before he could leave. “I think, either way they choose to spend the rest of their lives, the plan for the immediate future is a house. A house for hunters and angels means protection. Do you have any idea how to copy the bunker’s security?”

Chuck smiled apologetically and shook his head. “No, sorry. I never got technology, and magic was never my strong area.”

“But you created _everything_ ,” Dean countered.

“That’s a different kind of magic. The stuff that you guys use completely baffles me. But I have faith in you; you’ll get there,” Chuck said with a warm smile.

“Can you tell us what they are?” Dean asked as Chuck turned away, intending to leave.

Again, God shook his head. “No. That’s not something we can sense through grace – angels generally being genderless and all. And I don’t have x-ray vision to see inside their eggs. Sorry.”

With that, Chuck climbed the stairs, and the creak and bang of the door opening and closing echoed in the quiet room. The four of them looked between themselves in shock. Finally, Dean cleared his throat, locking his eyes on his angel though he spoke to the other two.

“You two keep looking,” he said. “I think Cas and I need to talk.”

~~~

“Why would you risk it?” Dean growled, pacing their room while Castiel sat calmly on the bed. “I mean, you told me they were illegal, and yet you called _God_ , knowing He might kill our kids!”

“I was prepared to fight if that’s what He chose,” Cas countered calmly.

“That’s not the point!” Dean cried, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “You did something big without talking to me again! We’re a team, Cas! You gotta trust me to talk to me about shit like this!”

“Of course I trust you,” Castiel said.

“Then we need to talk about this stuff! We can’t go making decisions about things on our own. Especially when it can affect our kids,” the hunter said more calmly, finally standing still now that his anger was cooling.

“I’m sorry, Dean. “What do you think we should do?”

Dean sighed and lowered himself onto the bed beside the angel, not missing the way Castiel supported him on his way down. “I don’t know. The idea of only getting to see a fraction of our kids’ lives scares me, but so does the idea of _God_ messing with my _soul_. _You_ not being an angel is not an option. I refuse to let you die. I can’t- I can’t deal with the idea that you might not be here someday,” he whispered, wiping at his eyes as they burned, trying to prevent tears from falling.

“Then that means we do nothing, and you die, or you become an angel. But, Dean, I am not afraid of death. Not if it means sharing Heaven with you,” the angel said, clasping one of the hunter’s hands in his.

“No, Cas,” Dean said firmly. “That’s not an option. Even if I got to see you in Heaven, I can’t- The idea of you-” His breath hitched a few times, and he squeezed the angel’s hand.

“Okay,” Castiel said quietly, using his free hand to rub soothing circles into his distressed boyfriend’s back. “Okay, Dean, we won’t do that. But if I’m not allowed to die, you can’t either. The thought of losing you hurts me, too.”

Dean huffed an amused laugh through the emotion clogging his throat and nodded. “Then I guess we make me an angel.”

“Are you sure that’s what you want?” Castiel asked. “Father said He’s never tried this before.”

Dean nodded. “I’m sure. If I die… Well, I’m going to if we don’t try this anyway, right? But you gotta promise me something.”

“Anything.”

“If it doesn’t work, you’re not allowed to fall. You don’t get to die just to follow me to Heaven, you understand? You have to live, to stay with our kids,” Dean said firmly, locking determined eyes on his angel while one hand splayed protectively across his belly.

Castiel swallowed a couple times and averted his gaze, clearly uneasy about making such a promise. “Dean-”

“No, Cas,” Dean snapped. “They need one of us! If I die, you have to stay with them. Promise me!”

“Okay,” the angel whispered, nodding. “Okay, I will. But you won’t die. I won’t let you.”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When did my light, fluffy “We’re having a baby!” fic turn into such dark subject matter like death? I swear, the fluff is coming back! I still have an idea for something I think is pretty adorable.
> 
> Also, remember way back in chapter five when I said I had a friend commissioned to draw me some stuff? That’s no longer happening… Not that I really need art anyway. None of my other fics have art.
> 
> Also, I signed up for this year’s J2 Big Bang (first one ever!), so if updates take longer than usual (excluding the four month hiatus when I was moving and then got stuck), it’s because I’m trying to finish that fic by May 1st. That’s why it’s been so long since I lasted updated this one, but I got stuck on my BB entry, and was in the mood for this one, so I wrote another chapter. Yay!
> 
> For anyone also following “Morning Gift,” I have also started the next chapter of that finally! I’ve been rewatching Criminal Minds with a friend who’s watching it for the first time (she loves MoReid, too!) and it’s reawakening my CM muse, so I’m trying to update MG, too. Again, slow going because of my BB fic and because it’s been awhile since I’ve written in that fandom and for that story, but I am working on it. :D


End file.
